Whitepaper - Develop A Winning API Product Strategy - 1

W HITEPA PER
Develop a winning
API product strategy
A blueprint for packaging digital value
B Y S T E P H E N F I S H M A N A N D M AT T M C L A R T Y
Contents
Introduction 3
Chapter 01
What is an API product? 5
Chapter 02
Understanding API users 14
Chapter 03
Understanding digital business through value dynamics 28
Chapter 04
Bundling and unbundling 52
Chapter 05
Developing and executing an API go-to-market strategy 61
Conclusion
The journeys on the path to profit 69
Introduction
D E V E L O P A W I N N I N G A P I P R O D U C T S T R AT E G Y
Every business is striving for success in the digital economy. As consumers shift
their focus from physical products to connected experiences, companies need to
change their product design and management practices.
APIs are a powerful enabler of this digital → What is the best approach to capturing
product transformation, either as standalone end-user and API consumer needs?
products or as channels for digital delivery.
However, the role of APIs is more profound → What are “value dynamics” and how
than this — they also provide a means of can they be leveraged to understand
3
unbundling and rebundling an organization’s and adjust digital business models?
value-creating business capabilities. Enter-
prises built on this composable foundation → What is bundling and unbundling, and
can react to market demands faster. They can how can APIs facilitate both tactics?
also construct innovative business models —
making them more adaptive in an ever-evolv- → What are the right steps in bringing
ing digital ecosystem. an API product to market?
This book introduces key concepts and → What journeys can API product
practices leading organizations have providers expect to travel as their
employed in using APIs as an enabler for market maturity increases?
their digital transformations. In reading, you
will be able to answer these questions: APIs are technical by nature, but when used
©2021 M U L E S O F T — M U L E S O F T . C O M
as the gateway to unbundled business capa-

→ How has the nature of products changed bilities, they offer tremendous possibilities to
in the digital age, what role do APIs play, any organization’s digital journey. Our goal is
and how can an ecosystem perspective to give you the right mental model, approach,
help in designing for adoption? and techniques to unlock that potential.
APIs are technical by nature, but
when used as the gateway to
unbundled business capabilities,
they offer tremendous possibilities
to any organization’s digital journey.
01
5
What is an API product?
This chapter provides an overview of “You’ve got to start with the
the role APIs play in digital product
customer experience and
delivery. It introduces the importance
of “outside-in” thinking for API product
work back toward the
design and shows how the concept of technology — not the other
API ecosystems can help foster this way around.”
mindset. Lastly, we present and discuss — STE VE JOBS

How understanding API ecosystems
can help API product professionals
stay focused on the playing field where
their products are deployed, used, and
ultimately judged.
When examining the dominant leaders in value creation — Facebook, Amazon,
Apple, Netflix, and Google, otherwise known as the FAANGs — one key
similarity is how optimized each of these companies is in the act of packaging
the delivery of value.
Regardless of physical or digital, good or never sees them. This gives APIs tremendous
service, free or paid, static or dynamic, potential in any enterprise context, as they
large or small, each of the FAANGs excels can be reused in abstract ways to allow for
at packaging delivery of value. We in the unbundling and bundling of value.
consumer economy might see this packaged
value as the social network that is Facebook, This means that enterprises that commit to
the brown box with a smile that comes from thinking of APIs as packaged products that
Amazon, the phone that has the Apple logo deliver value to consumers in the model of
on its back, the next season of Stranger a repeatable and evolving service position
Things that streams on Netflix, or the search themselves to bundle and unbundle capabil-
engine that lies at the core of Google’s ities at scale. This posture towards bundling
ecosystem. A different perspective on and unbundling will allow organizations
packaging the delivery of value looks at the to thrive in the current age where the rules
open platforms and APIs that ground, extend, of the global economy have evolved from
6
and more commonly than ever are directly big beats small, through fast beats slow to
sold as consumer value by these enterprises. where we are now: big and fast wins almost
every time.
Amazon’s AWS platform is amongst the
most notable examples of a fully monetized This mindset allows an enterprise to align
product line consisting entirely of APIs. It’s around a model where APIs are managed like
not only celebrated because of its success a product and designed like a service.
in the marketplace, but also because of the
famous Bezos API edict that all capabili-
ties and components must communicate
through standardized service interfaces.
Bezos’ insight — which has been leveraged by
many of the most respected and innovative

enterprises globally — is that a product, at
its core, is a unit or vehicle of value delivery
from a producer to a consumer. In a digital
context, APIs can be enablers of products,
components of products, or even products
themselves, even if an external customer
Adopting an “outside-in” mindset needs in the context of an API-as-product
discussion?
With the status of APIs as enterprise products
firmly established across software-driven in- → How can an enterprise develop an API
dustries, there are several questions worthy of customer base without a track record of
discussion: delivering digital products and services?
→ What does it look like to have an intentional → How does business context and strategy
model for API product management? inform and shape the strategy of an
enterprise’s API program?
→ What does it mean to design APIs like a
service? While this list doesn’t include everything you
need to consider, it’s a great starting place
→ How can we make our API offering stand for any sophisticated product-centered dis-
out? Is it even possible to make APIs cussion. Audience analysis with a balanced
sticky? bias towards external audiences aligns with a
widely adopted generic strategy best practice:
→ What set of stakeholders and audiences Envision your brand and offerings “outside-in”
have a role to play in API creation, and build your offerings “inside out.”
7
enablement, and management? How
should we consider their wants and
Figure 1: Components and sequence to derive an outside-in product vision and roadmap
PRIORITIZATION AUDIENCE VALUE

MODEL SEGMENTS PROPOSITION
PRODUCT PRODUCT
VISION ROADMAP
A specific model for developing an outside-in API ecosystems
vision has yet to be standardized by industry,
A product (a unit or vehicle of value delivery
product, or design leaders. However, most
from a producer to a consumer) exists in the
models align with the same core ingredients
context of an ecosystem of audiences and
(see figure 1):
stakeholders. Having a reasonable under-
standing of the key players in an ecosystem
→ A grounded prioritization model to allow
is necessary for getting optimal engagement
decisions to be made based on a shared
and return within and from the ecosystem.
framework.
→ A detailed understanding of the audiences “Like a biological ecosystem, a

and stakeholders in your ecosystem digital ecosystem is a complex
(including internal stakeholders that
adaptive system where each
support and contribute to your product
and the service surrounding it). element depends on the others via
competition and cooperation.”
→ A value proposition specifically crafted to
fit with the wants and needs of the target
In the business and tech worlds, we
audiences that consume your product/
sometimes overuse borrowed terms, but in
8
service.
an increasingly complex digital economy, the
term “ecosystem” makes sense. Although the
It’s critical to note that with this model, the
components in a connected digital system
specific wants and needs of the audience
are not all alive, their behavior mimics many
drive the vision and roadmap — the “outside”
biological ecosystem traits.
perspective — rather than the existing
business model or capabilities of the enter-
Like a biological ecosystem, a digital
prise — the “inside” perspective. Of course,
ecosystem is a complex adaptive system
you should consider your enterprise’s unique
where each element depends on the others
capabilities and model when creating a
via competition and cooperation. It’s also
product set. The difference here is that these
important to remember that although we
factors are predominant in building the
may think of digital ecosystems as being
offerings (i.e., inside out).
connected machines and software applica-

tions, they are more aptly described as so-
ciotechnical systems that include people in
many different roles.
In the context of APIs, you can think of the may have called in for support or worked
API ecosystem as the system of interconnect- with developer relations at the API company.
ed and interdependent entities that consume Other teams at the company built the API
and support your API product(s). Thinking and its underlying assets. Lastly, the API may
about APIs in this broader context has depend on other third-party APIs provided by
many benefits, but first, let’s look at some partners or use partners for some distribution
examples of the API ecosystem perspective. purpose to other groups of consumers. Even
for a single API, there are many elements to
Let’s start with a single API (at the center in the ecosystem.
figure 2). That API is going to provide value to
a group of customers or end-users. However, Ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft
those customers are not using the API provide a real-world example of several ex-
directly. They are likely using an application ternally facing API ecosystems with critical
that directly calls the API. That application interdependencies between separate organi-
was built by developers who needed to find, zations, all necessary to deliver an innovative
learn, and code against the API and its asso- customer experience (see figure 3). There
ciated documentation and other tools. They could clearly be disruption to this ecosystem
Figure 2: API product ecosystem components
9
CUSTOMERS /
APPLICATIONS PARTNERS
END USERS
APPLICATION 3RD PARTY

DEVELOPERS API APIS
SUPPORT AND UNDERLYING

TOOLS
PLATFORM TEAMS ASSETS
if any of the players changed their services or “A holistic view helps an API
a new player entered.
program, product, or platform
leader understand each audience’s
Knowing the broader context of your APIs
— what world they live in — can be helpful in unique needs and stakeholder
numerous ways (see figure 4). group, along with how each
segment impacts and influences
We will explore how to visualize API ecosys-
the other segments.”
tems and capitalize on these opportunities in
Chapter 3, “Understanding digital business terprises with scalable business models
through value dynamics.” have different layers of APIs (as shown in
figure 5) that enable them to provide com-
But what about an organization that has posable solutions that can be externally or
multiple APIs? In addition to all of those internally facing.
touchpoints, APIs may be interconnected. An
internal API ecosystem full of interchange- Like the examples in figures 3 and 5, a
able components is often required to support holistic view helps an API program, product,
these robust digital experiences. Mature en- or platform leader understand each audi-
ence’s unique needs and stakeholder group,
10
Figure 3: API product ecosystem components
along with how each segment impacts and
influences the other segments. Customer
and partner segments are interdependent
on the staff who make and support APIs. In
contrast, the staff who make and support
APIs might depend on staff who manage the
technical infrastructure. Serving external API
consumer segments implies that you must
implement formal governance and policies
to manage security and resiliency. Enterprise
API
development teams need to know what APIs

are available to them before creating another,
API
possibly duplicative, API. These examples all

illustrate the value of the ecosystem view.

API
The ecosystem view is particularly valuable

for API product owners. Using this perspec-
tive, a product owner can prioritize creating
and maintaining enablement materials for
“The ecosystem mindset also helps product owners work with
operational and legal teams to ensure terms and conditions of
use are appropriate and enforceable.”
external consumers to meet their needs conditions of use are appropriate and enforce-
while also saving staff members from routine able. Inside the enterprise, ecosystem thinking
technical questions. The ecosystem mindset helps API product owners work with enterprise
also helps product owners work with opera- IT and application development teams to drive
tional and legal teams to ensure terms and awareness of existing APIs that can be reused,
Figure 4: Details on API benefits
BENEFIT HOW AN ECOSYSTEM MAKES THE BENEFIT REAL
FOSTER OUTSIDE-IN THINKING The ecosystem perspective helps you establish a customer-
driven view of your API and its value proposition.
DETERMINE THE BUSINE SS MODEL Outlining the overall ecosystem helps you understand the
11
best business model for your API products that optimizes
value for customers and value for your organization.
DRIVE THE RIGHT CONSUMPTION Knowing the business model means knowing what API
consumption profile to aim for and how to incentivize that
consumption.
IDENTIF Y NE W CHANNEL S & SEGMENTS Getting a picture of your API ecosystem helps to identify
channel gaps and potential new customer segments.
CRE ATE NE W CONSUMER VALUE Seeing how value flows in the ecosystem will enable you
to find new opportunities to create and deliver value to
customers.
OPTIMIZE DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN Understanding the dependencies of your API will help to
find potential efficiency gains.
FACILITATE INNOVATION Mapping the API ecosystem for your API products and
even your partners’ and competitors’ ecosystems will help

you take advantage of all innovation opportunities.
CO-CRE ATE VALUE WITH PARTNERS Visualizing the API ecosystem can facilitate pattern
matching of API co-collaboration archetypes.
E STABLISH FEEDBACK LOOPS Examining the ecosystem from a system dynamics

perspective can help you deeply understand the impacts
of changes to the ecosystem and manage accordingly.
practice a design-first methodology, and While not every enterprise has needs for
create a shared directory of reusable a formal portfolio of customer-facing API
API assets. products, it’s clear that having an ecosystem
map can give stakeholders from across your
With the ecosystem in mind, a product owner team and company a common lens and context
can more effectively manage a backlog of from which to discuss and drive decisions.
activities and capabilities and then prioritize This common lens across stakeholder groups
these efforts with different parts of the organi- is critical for large scale success because API
zation while talking through dependencies programs are a team sport and not an
and concerns. individual one.
Figure 5: An internal ecosystem of API-enabled components that support multiple consumer experiences
12
POS DEVICE MOBILE BANKING WEB BANKING
EXPERIENCE
APIS POS APIS MOBILE BANKING APIS WEB BANKING APIS
(INCL.AUTHN)
FLEX PAY
PROCESS ADMIN API
APIS FLEX PAY
AUTHZ API
CUSTOMER PRODUCT CUSTOMER ACTIVITY TRXN FULFILLMENT CUSTOMER AUTHN API
PROFILE ANALYTICS API EVENTED API
EVENT
SYSTEM GENERATOR API
APIS CUSTOMER
INFO API
PLC API CREDIT CARD API MORTGAGES API INVESTMENTS API
DEPOSITS API
CUSTOMER DEPOSIT & PLC CREDIT CARD MORTGAGE WEALTH

INFO API LEGACY SYSTEM LEGACY APP PLATFORM PLATFORM
Key takeaways
What is an API product?
01 API products — like all products — are vehicles for delivering

value from producers to consumers.
As digital products, APIs can provide value with

02
immediacy, and as software interfaces, they are easily
updated, automated, and composed.
03 APIs are best managed as products and designed

as services.
13
04 It’s essential to have an outside-in perspective for API
products, viewing them as part of an ecosystem serving
consumer needs.
To build on this, let’s now shift our focus to API consumers.
02
14
Understanding API users
This chapter articulates how to bring “All systems have a design.
industry accepted models for product
The question is, ‘Is the design
ideation and development into
the world of API program execution.
intentional or random?’”
We introduce the importance of — PATRICK QUAT TLEBAUM, CEO, HARMONIC DE SIGN
“outside-in” thinking for API product

design and show how the concept

of API ecosystems can help foster this
mindset. Lastly, we discuss user
experience (UX) techniques used in
API design to keep the consumer
at the center.
In the pre-iPhone days, during the product wars between Bill Gates and Steve
Jobs, there was and remains a general perception that held Apple as a company
focused on great design for users while Microsoft was not. Some may agree
with this and point to how Microsoft has transformed under the leadership of
Satya Nadella.
There is, however, another perspective. opers from novice to expert were captivated
Microsoft has always been a company by how quickly they could make what they
focused on great design for users. The actual imagine come to life — all because someone
difference was that Microsoft initially focused made an easy to understand set of reusable
on a very specific set of users: the software building blocks. Imagine that. An app store
development community. before iOS. Controls as simple as HTML,
controls before the World Wide Web (WWW).
Microsoft hasn’t been consistently dominant When viewed from that angle, one could say
with consumers over its lifespan, and their that Steve Jobs was the one who learned
flagship Windows platform is now but one from Bill Gates when he decided to open up
of many popular options. Where Microsoft his walled garden and embrace an ecosystem
shines historically is in development of developers.
15
platforms. Of all the platforms that have
come and gone from MS-DOS to Access to The secret behind Microsoft’s lasting
Visual Basic to .NET to Azure, Microsoft has relevance with developers is the ultimate
consistently remained relevant to a vibrant devotion to the idea that developers are
and evolving developer community for the customers, whether they write the checks or
last 30 years. not. Microsoft’s fundamental insight at that
time is the same one that drives platform
It shouldn’t come as a surprise given that growth today — the constraint on adoption
the very same Alan Cooper who birthed UX and growth for a technical product is in the
into the world by creating both personas and ecosystem of resources capable of leveraging
user-centered design is the same guy who’s it to create value.
also known as the godfather of Microsoft’s
Visual Basic. In 1988, Cooper created a visual
programming language called “Ruby,” later

purchased by Bill Gates and went viral as
Visual Basic. The VBX interface allowed for
the creation of reusable widgets that could be
dropped into a software development en-
vironment that would ultimately run as “dy-
namically installed controls.” Software devel-
The constraint on adoption and growth
for a technical product is in the
ecosystem of resources capable of
leveraging it to create value.
Planning an API program starts experience created different approaches and
tools to formalize a path for making an in-
with the users
tentional and optimized experience for API
The design of interfaces created inside an consumers. Within this chapter, we’ll speak to
enterprise (graphical or not) communicate three key artifacts that allow an organization
how much that organization values its users’ to plan and design compelling experiences
time and effort. Also, these interfaces share for their core audiences: user types, personas,
your enterprise’s commitment to low-friction and journey maps.
experiences. In the world of APIs, an organi-
zation can show this commitment by creating User types
consistent, intuitive, and coherent taxono-
While personas are high-fidelity artifacts
mies and signatures. Like the design of inter-
that provide insights on users’ attitudes and
faces, the way APIs work together cohesively
emotions, user types are less concerned with
communicate that an enterprise values the
demographics and backstories. User types
API consumer’s time and effort.
are lean artifacts used in product strategy
to support decision-making from a behav-
The list of human factors to consider in your
ioral perspective with high-level factors like
design process can quickly become over-
observed behaviors, opportunities, pain-
whelming without a framework to understand,
17
points, and frequent scenarios in which users
contextualize, and prioritize them. Luckily
find themselves.
for the API community, the UX and service
design disciplines have been around
A typical model for user types is to compare
long enough to provide a set of approaches
two aspects that allow for conversations and
and tools to leverage for our API transforma-
decision making to happen with a common
tion initiatives.
frame of reference about what’s important
to different ecosystem players. For example,
Artifacts and archetypes consider the different types of shoppers a
If you’re working in an API context and have large retailer might service. How would they
never encountered user types, personas, compare on a two-dimensional diagram with
or journey maps, you’re not alone. Even if an expected level of customer service on one
you have seen these types of artifacts, it’s axis and purchase likelihood on the other?
uncommon for organizations to use them You might end up with user types like those
within an API context, given that many in figure 6.
people think UX is a discipline that is just
about “pretty pictures and wireframes.” In You can apply this same approach in an API
recent years, as developer relations and API consumer context, where a user-type map
ecosystems gained traction in the enterprise, might look like figure 7.
many longtime advocates of the developer
In figure 7, the vertical axis represents the esis, which is too flat and speculative for a
amount of influence a user type has over the business-critical initiative. Depending on the
decision to use a particular provider of APIs, scale and goals of your effort, this research
while the horizontal axis represents the direct can be a series of interviews, surveys, or a
interaction that exists between the user type mix of qualitative and quantitative activities
and the actual API products. designed to surface unique insights and
unmet needs.
The hypothetical user types below can be
annotated with details (as shown in figure 8) In figure 8, it is important to note the non-API
to help understand the goals a prospective consumer types because these user types are
user might have in a particular interaction. often deeply embedded in co-creation activ-
The user types in figure 8 are relatively ities. For example, the “enabler” user type,
generic and need more grounding to be which represents the set of actors who live
useful as planning tools in an API consumer in between API creators and API consumers,
experience initiative. Practically speaking, this has the potential to make or break your API
means committing to perform user/market consumer experience in the eyes of the API
research to inform and validate the hypoth- consumer (who is often your most crucial
Figure 6: Simple user type/segment map
18
WANTS SERVICE
VIP
SHOPPER
FREQUENTLY BUYS
RARELY BUYS
WINDOW COMMANDO
SHOPPER SHOPPER
SELF SERVICE
user type). In your organization, this might leadership whether they want to trust
be a developer relations team member who random/ad-hoc channels outside of their
focuses on public events or a support team influence to help their customers or if
member who helps customers get credentials they’d prefer to have a fully functional
for sandbox experiments. channel that can support API consumers,
just like they would get help with any other
It might be tempting to ask, “Why do we type of scaled product or service.
need to understand the enablers when they
aren’t the direct users of my consumer expe- → User types and personas aren’t an
rience?” This perspective has a couple of gaps experience/service design. They are
within it: essential but separate components of API
planning and design. In addition to user
→ Consuming users don’t engage in a types and personas, journey maps are
vacuum. They will need support, whether a critical part of creating modern online
you have dedicated staff or not. The experiences (inclusive of API engagement)
question here is, “How will the needs be across multiple channels. Journey maps
surfaced and met?” Ask your product will help you plan a curated and low-
Figure 7: API stakeholder user type/segment map
19
HIGH INFLUENCE
API BUYER ARCHITECT MAKER

BUSINESS DECISION TECHNICAL API CONSUMER,
MAKER DECISION MAKER APPLICATION
DEVELOPER
ENABLER
API SUPPLIER CO-CREATOR
INDIRECT USAGE
TECH SPECIALISTS
DIRECT USAGE
SERVICE TEAM
INNOVATOR ASSISTING MAKER
BUSINESS AND
TECHNICAL HYBRID
LOW INFLUENCE
friction path for an API consumer to move services contexts. These details would
through a funnel process to an ultimate typically come from qualitative user research
conclusion of production API usage. (e.g., interviews, shadowing, or focus groups).
It is possible to make detailed personas
Personas based on “educated guesses,” but it injects
the risk of insular thinking, which you need to
Personas are fairly commonplace artifacts for
weigh against the criticality of your API initia-
planning offerings and experiences targeted
tive.
to specific audiences. UX and other design
disciplines have refined the persona genera-
Journey maps
tion and validation process for more than two
decades, and many technology professionals User types and personas are critical compo-
use them to empathize with user concerns. nents for planning an API program. However,
It’s important to understand that personas alone, they aren’t enough because they don’t
alone are insufficient to craft a holistic experi- provide context. That’s where journey maps
ence design that crosses channel boundaries come in.
(both online and physical in many cases).
So, let’s now go one step further into the
Personas have more detail in high-fidelity API ecosystem and map out how the
20
artifacts that give insight into the attitudes consuming developers (i.e., the direct users
and emotions of users as they approach and of the API) work with other user types to
execute a task, whereas user types are less achieve their goals. Understanding how all
concerned with demographics and backsto- the players come together to support your
ries. Personas are used in detailed design API consumers is fundamental to developing
contexts to support decision making from the right API product, set of services, and
demographic and emotional perspectives support offerings to make your users success-
with factors like age, cultural concerns, or ful. Journey mapping is a technique used by
technical ability. For example, the “maker” leading UX and service design organizations
user type in figure 8 may relate to two or to articulate the steps and activities necessary
more personas representing the breadth to complete complex, multi-faceted tasks
of expertise represented in your developer that involve multiple actors across multiple
community (e.g., hobbyist developers vs. en- channels. Journey mapping can be effective-
terprise full stack experts). ly applied to API consumers and give some
insight into the various forms and levels of
Personas are more context-specific than detail that different teams align around when
user types as well. For example, if you’re in planning different types of experiences.
the financial services sector, the user types
might apply to your scenarios, but personas Journey maps for API consumers are paradox-
would require specifics connected to financial ically less common (compared to user types
Mapping the API consumer journey,
both in current and future/desired
state, provides product owners with
a holistic understanding of their
target user-base, developer relations,
collaborative interactions, marketing
strategies, and on-boarding approaches
that your enterprise will create
and support.
Figure 8: Low-fidelity API consumer user types
API BUYER - BUSINESS DECISION MAKER MAKER - API CONSUMER, APPLICATION DEVELOPER
Inspired by profit and Avoids bleeding edge Inspired by possibility Avoids “stop and go”
ROI potential scenarios with and affordance scenarios with no
unknown risks visible path to
completion
Feels safe in groups Feels safe with a

Identifies as “strong” tether to community
and “in control” Identifies as “skilled”
and “growing”
Seeks turnkey
solutions that are fire Seeks freedom, flow,
and forget elegance, and
completion
ARCHITECT - TECHNICAL DECISION MAKER INNOVATOR - BUSINESS & TECHNICAL HYBRID
Inspired by Avoids Inspired by possibility Avoids short-term
22
alignment and clear interdependencies and and uniqueness solutions that put off
concepts with rich “dead end” scenarios problems in favor of
support options with “no options” practical solutions
that can evolve to
Feels safe when solve them
solution constraints
Feels safe when they Identifies as “smart”
are flexible
are not publicly and “uniquely
challenged qualified”
Identifies as a
“creative lane-breaker”
Seeks original and “dynamic”
Seeks speed and solutions via creative
closure composition
ENABLER - API SUPPLIER SERVICE TEAM CO-CREATOR - TECH SPECIALISTS ASSISTING MAKER
Inspired by getting Avoids engaging in Inspired by Avoids teams and

customers unstuck areas where their transparency, people who don’t
product or service is responsiveness, accept their expertise
unlikely to evolve and flexibility at face value
Feels safe when they
have a strong team

behind them Identifies as Feels safe when Identifies as a
“facilitator” who is expertise is respected “technical problem
“customer focused” and valued solver” and
“methodical”
Seeks satisfying
solutions via
connection and insight Seeks fast answers to
complex questions
and personas) in enterprise API programs ing, deploy and monitor, and learn and evolve
while also being the most actionable and stages (figure 9).
useful of the three experience design artifacts
covered in this chapter. The main difference As consumers move through each of the
to pay attention to here is that the user types above phases, each of the other user types
and personas can be helpful as tools, but interacts and collaborates with the consumer
neither reflect the actual experience people and each other ultimately to deploy, scale,
will have as they engage your enterprise. and evolve their API-powered applications.
Journey map artifacts, on the other hand, are
more than representations of people — they There is no industry-standard template for
are models of the experience that guides a documenting a journey map, and there are
consumer through each step that developers many good examples to choose from. When
go through as they engage with your product/ looking at examples for inspiration, the key
platform/organization throughout their appli- distinction to pay attention to is the level of
cation creation experience. detail in the diagram to see if it would give
your team:
Mapping the API consumer journey, both in
current and future/desired state, provides → An accurate picture that communicates
product owners with a holistic understanding the true level of complexity and duration
23
of their target user-base, developer relations, of the process that people go through.
collaborative interactions, marketing strat-
egies, and on-boarding approaches that → Sufficient insight into the likely mindset of
your enterprise will create and support. This actors inside the journey.
removes friction from the process of taking
an application from the drawing board to → Visibility into areas/interactions of pain/
full-scale production. Journey maps can show delight for the actors inside the journey.
your API product owners that application
creation and API consumption are a team- → An understanding of the moments where
sport — requiring each of the user types to value creation is realized for the consumer,
achieve the desired end. This all leads to a your enterprise, or all parties involved.
pleasant and satisfying experience of leverag-
ing your enterprise’s APIs to make something For comparison purposes, we’ve included
valuable to your stakeholders and customers. the following three examples that span
different levels of complexity in mapping
You can map a general framework for the API audience journeys. While these examples
consumption journey in the following phases: aren’t API-consumer-specific, they still can be
discovery and learning, envisioning and ex- used as both an inspiration of what your API
perimenting, developing and troubleshoot- product team can create and a justification
“Mapping the API consumer journey, both in current and future/desired
state, provides product owners with a holistic understanding of their
target user-base, developer relations, collaborative interactions,
marketing strategies, and on-boarding approaches that your enterprise
will create and support.”
for why your consumer journey map needs mission-critical processes that span over
to be specific to your industry and context. longer periods and involve many actors.
For example, your authentication and provi- Each of these formats is appropriate to help
sioning policies and processes are specific to a product team identify what areas of the
your enterprise, while your personas’ goals journey are ripe for improvement or redesign.
and emotional states will be specific to your These maps are the context that allows your
industry, etc. API initiative team to articulate, design, and
DISCOVERY & ENVISIONING & DEVELOPING & DEPLOY & LEARN &
24
LEARNING EXPERIMENTING TROUBLESHOOTING MONITOR EVOLVE
Figure 9: API consumer journey phases
JOURNEY MAPPING IN PRACTICE

execute a series of efforts that will ultimately
Each of the following examples has different culminate in a customer-facing experience
strengths and can be used for various that meets the goals of your enterprise and
purposes. The most simple formats (figures the API consuming developers.
10 and 11) are appropriate for low to medium
complexity processes and don’t require in- Whatever format your team picks, your goal
teraction by more than a few actors. These is for your API team to have an “as-is” and a
formats are an intentionally simplified form “to-be” map that articulates how the journey
of a journey map, sometimes referred to of your API consumers will play out, along
as an Experience Map (a higher level artifact with the sense of how the other actors in the
than a typical journey map). The complex ecosystem support that journey. This deliber-
format (figure 12) is more appropriate for ate approach, detailed with the discrete steps
and interactions along the path, is the key to will be inextricably tied to development and
allowing your API product owners to create operation of the detailed systems to deliver
an experience rich in moments of delight as market-leading experiences that leverage
API consumers engage with your platform. API products.
A key factor to pay attention to within these
journey map artifacts is how they make it
clear that multidisciplinary collaboration
Figure 10: Simple journey map template, courtesy of the Nielsen Norman Group
01 02
03
04
25
05
06
07
08 ©2021 M U L E S O F T — M U L E S O F T . C O M
01 A persona (“who”) 02 The scenario to be examined (“what”) 03 Chunkable phases

of the journey 04 Actions 05 Thoughts 06 Emotional experience of the user has throughout
the journey can be supplemented with quotes or videos from research 07 Opportunities to
focus on going forward 08 Internal ownership
Figure 11: Experience map for billing management, courtesy of Harmonic Design
LO W E R I N G MY B I L L
REDUCING MY SERVICES BILL EXPERIENCE MAP
Moment Critical Moment Completion Moment Jump Point
ADJUSTING FINANCES CONSIDERING OPTIONS
““My daughter got a good scholarship

but it was still a lot of money, so
we needed to budget. So we were
looking into lowering our bills
where we could.”
– Customer “In my head I tried to figure out what ACCEPTING AN OPTION
we could not pay. How long could
Company 2.2
we not pay for this before it turns worked with me
to solve my
RESUMES AT
CHECKING
off? But I don't like that feeling. I problem. NEXT BILL
don't like to play with fire like that.”

– Customer
HEARING
EMPLOYEE’S
RESPONSE
I think I have already 2.0
This bill is confusing.
cut back to the
REALIZING NEED minimum. There's no
I don't understand
TELLING
give anywhere. I don't
what I am paying for.
CONTACTING VERIFYING MY MY STORY
TO REDUCE know what I can do.
IDENTITY
EXPENSES COMPANY This is the best
1.5
I feel like I am paying
for a lot of things
HEARING company can do? I think
1.4
1.0 1.3 that don’t even OPTIONS they are holding back
the best options, hoping
make sense.
FIGURING OUT I will settle for less.
LOOKING TO HOW TO
REDUCE MONTHLY LOWER SERVICE I hope I can get
2.1
I cannot make ends EXPENSES THE BILL I need to talk this situation
meet with these
bill payments!
with them and
see how I can
taken care of. REJECTING AN OPTION
lower this bill.
Company does 2.2 RESUMES AT RESUMES AT GETTING
1.1 not value me as
1.2 CHECKING 2.3 TRANSFERRED
a customer.
Time to shop! NEXT BILL TO MANAGER
CRITICAL MOMENTS
This might be the first time the The customer's hopes have just been raised
customer has really looked at the bill and disappointment will damage the customer's
closely and seen what they're paying for. optimism.
NOTES Customer rarely looks at the bill, and this The options the customer is offered are limited both A customer who appears to have chosen to
26
might be the first time they've really by the employee's role and that employee’s service stay with the company can leave the
looked at it closely and seen what philosophy. A good option signals the company is interaction with the intention of leaving
they're paying for. willing to work with them; a weak option signals later.
that the company is playing games and that helping
them is not a priority.
MOMENT DESCRIPTIONS
1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 2.0 2.1 2.2a 2.3
Customer realizes they Customer looks at all Customer looks at their Customer decides to talk Customer provides The customer tells the Customer talks through the Customer hears options. Customer either accepts the Customer pushes back and
need to reduce their their monthly bills to see bill to see if they are with company, either by verification agent about their bill problem with agent and has option happily because they requests a better offer.
expenses, often due to a if anything can be cut. paying for anything they calling or visiting a store. information. and asks for an expectations set. are satisfied with it...
change in life Often there is nothing shouldn't be, explanation.
circumstances. that can be cut and the and to try to understand 2.2b
customer feels cornered how they might be able to ...Or customer
and desperate. bring the bill down. grudgingly accepts it
because they believe their
options are limited.
Figure 12: Complex journey map for POS on-boarding, courtesy of Harmonic Design
© 2020 Harmonic Design, Inc.
www.thisisharmonic.com
Dead Zone
After paying to do my !
We adapted to set-up, you send me a
your schedule. form to fill; I am not b.
Customers did not expect
to invest so much money
going to do it. Editing with
Installing Equipment
What could I do to make use of this time?
Identifying Need Opting for Service Setting Up - Customer Easing Into Service
representative
into installation prep
- Customer a.
Editing myself
in back end
I know things aren’t

3.01a
set up correctly, but
3.02 3.05 4.01 4.02
3.03a
Now the real work
2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05
2.07 2.08
2.06
Providing Getting Having Getting Being Closing out
Receiving
Discussing Reviewing my Editing my Conducting recommenda- equipment final tweaks, Testing out Start using
I’ll make do as long
begins.
set-up educated on on the first
timeline follow up set-up set-up site audit installed by config equipment equipment
requirements tions after system
rep.
night
as it’s working OK.
Experience Map
audit set up
- Customer
[Having a demo with sales Kick off
with POC
Follow up
message
Set-up
spreadsheet
Set-up
PDF or JPG
Set-up
review with rep.
Discussion
with rep.
Set-up
platform
Site audit Site audit Task list
2.13 2.14
Installation
appointment
Installation
appointment
Installation
appointment
Equipment in
test mode
Rep. support Rep. support End of day
review
on-site] solidified the product 2 Weeks Being
Discussion surprised by Being
about timeline appeased
and made it real. Sales
costs or
It should be easier to
1.10b
pay schedule
I don’t know who to
Example
Thinking
representative was great and quickly understand about the I did call him at closing – I 5.02b
contact to get these
ite
contract
I’ve worked with this tool 3.03b
3.03b
gave us confidence.
3.01b
what I’m paying for. This is not Bank auto-draft Discussion
with sales rep. Experiencing Being was like ‘dude, I don’t know 5.01b
Making do
with what things done.
- Customer
1.08c
before, but this wasn’t a failed install educated on
what to do. This is so
the timeline
On-S
Realizing I’ve got

Waiting appointment ad hoc set-up
Switchers to hear as clear as I had You just billed me confusing to me. gaps in
back from I expected experienced before. knowledge
rep. for the equipment - Customer
- Customer I haven't received. Installation Installation
This map shows the range of experiences described by interviewed - Customer
appointment appointment
Notification from
customers across markets. It displays their experiences, their 1.02 1.03a 1.04 1.05 1.08b 1.09 1.10a 1.11 2.01a 4.03 5.01a 5.02a 5.03
0.01 sales rep. about
Identifying Telling rep. what to expect Modifying Being
Experienced or Moving Getting Receiving Receiving Agreeing Seeing Transitioning Discovering Seeking
Asking for I want comfortable
need for system as
thoughts and feelings throughout their journey. It also describes the unexperienced
system
forward with
company
demo
demo of
equipment
the quote to move
the
contract
to the
contract
contract is
approved
to next phase
of project needed
Issues support with service
forward
touchpoints and channels that customers interacted with at each 1.01
1.06
Reviewing the
Welcome
moment. Researching
options
Industry
network
Demo request
form
Consultative
In-person demo
Quote document
from rep.
quote and
negotiating
Quote document
from rep.
Communication
with rep. message R2.02
R2.03
Receiving
Equipment Resources
Website
Troubleshooting
with support rep
5.01c
cost 4 Weeks Coordinating confirmation
I felt in control, Realizing that
Off-S
Level of mastery Conversation

Switchers timeline of dates for I want to do it myself, because there are with most
install
I could work the if something goes wrong tasks still to trusted rep.
I thought
1.10c Waiting for next
c. get done
s teps (dead time)
Customer variables system myself. I have to come find the
1.03b Signing
Key
Testimonials Industry network 1.06a 1.06c Telling the rep. what
Asking Comparing Inquiring & contract Kick off Conversation to edit
impacting needs
this was
Product detail page Customer field visits
for demo to other
- Customer right cable anyways.
ite
refining with quickly to with POC with

b.
Industry review sites from other companies’ sales rep. get promo Discussion POC
companies quotes about timeline
Learning to make
- Customer Support didn’t know
included
Google search edits with help of rep.
a. anything about us.

- Customer
Editing myself
in back-end
Negotiation
with rep.
In person Email 1.07 1.08a
1.06b
Applying Getting [Once all is set up] POC said
for financing approved for 3.05 R4.01 R4.02
“here’s who you need to get in
R2.02 R2.06 R3.01a R3.02a R3.03
R2.04 R2.05
Speaking financing Learning
Discussing Providing Adjusting Start using Closing out
Installing with Testing out
with
partner
set-up set-up Reviewing my Editing my
set-up assistance
set-up about the
system equipment equipment on the first touch with going forward,”
submission requirements set-up and night
On location Phone call config. with rep. I was like - “you’re breaking
Link to application Application Notification of
website from sales form approval up with me?”
Conversations
with business
Kick off
with
Set-up Set-up Set-up
review POC
Set-up
review
Set-up
platform
Guided
installation
Boxes of
equipment
Guided
configuration
Guided
education
Equipment in
test mode
POC support End of day review - Customer
spreadsheet PDF or JPG
partners Everything with my POC POC with POC
R2.13
Being
R2.14
with POC with POC session with
POC
was awesome! Information surprised by Being
SMS Web - Customer
about submitting
set-up
Waiting for next
s teps (dead time)
costs or
payment
appeased
R3.01b R3.02b
schedule
Installing my Fine tuning
equipment my self-install
Bank Discussion
R2.02 auto-draft with sales
Discussing
Remote video call site
rep.
readiness Boxes of Guided

equipment fine tuning
with POC
Kick off
with POC
Most common path Less common path Conversation
about site audit
!
Customers felt they were
getting a good deal when
they signed the contract,
On-site Remote
but then were surprised
by actual charges
!
Customers expected to go
live quickly but were
Rep. coming
negatively surprised when Things go well and
Thinking Saying the company’s timeline

(Mindset) (Direct Quote) out in person is was laid out for them I rarely have to
a differentiator ask for support POC makes
themselves more
Install is POC calls available.
a b c
very to check in:
neat and very helpful
professional
I feel like I got a Service is set and
I am moving on to
good deal a
other concerns
!
Negative a a
Expectation feelings
Gaps
b b
a
a b d
a b
My system c
c
keeps crashing b Amount of
I feel nervous
information in
Positive Key about committing training session is I wish I had
feelings Moments but need to overwhelming more training
move a Disappointed in My rep. left
forward Install cut into b having to resort before closeout
to remote
training time
Rep. is c assistance
Very upset b Ad-hoc training
disrespectful to learn of work Rep. leaves after failed install
Ready to sign and costs needed Rep. or before everyone
to get ready This is not equipment
is not effective
is comfortable
the contract for install the cost I was is not
but no one to expecting prepared for
installation
talk to to pay
0.01 1.01 1.02 1.03a 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08a 1.09 1.10a 1.11 2.01a 2.02 2.03 2.04 (email) 2.05 2.06a 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 3.01a 3.02 3.03a 3.04 3.05 (in-person) 3.06 3.07 5.01b 5.02a 5.03
My current system is I am actively looking into I am satisfied enough I reach out to company The rep. shows Soon after the sales I am reading the quote in detail I get information about I learn I am approved I receive a very long I agree to the I sign the document I move into the next phase of I discuss timeline and set-up I receive a follow up I send a copy I see what my set-up I notice that things are A rep. comes I am sent a list of tasks to I am surprised by the first I discuss cost or payment Rep. comes Rep. finalizes Rep. trains my staff and My employees and I I start officially using my I close out my As I go live and for a few I realize that there are I make do with what I I feel comfortable with the
not providing the various sources to to further consider this to get sales visit up in person to give me visit, I receive a very detailed and trying to understand the financing and submit an for financing. document detailing my terms and conditions because I am satisfied becoming a customer. process with my POC. message giving and asking for lots of my set-up will look like in. wrong with my set-up and out and determines site get ready for installation. charge. It was not what I discrepancy with my sales rep., and installs my system set-up. myself on the system. experiment with the system with the rep. present operations the first night days after, my staff and I things I don't understand. have and plan to get service and I have moved
functionality that I need, figure out the best company as an option for and product demo. a demo, and discuss document with pricing total cost of ownership application. product and service of the contract. with the offer. A sales rep may let me know that of information, including to my POC. go into the back-end myself. readiness for installation. expected based on my and I am able to change my equipment. equipment in test-mode. for moral support with the new system. make a list of things we E.g. A couple weeks assistance later when I on to other things.
or customer experience option for me. my business. my needs. information. including equipment, selections. a project manager will be my set-up. sales experience. payment options. and assistance. need to fix with the out, still not sure how have time.
1.08b 2.07
that I desire. and other costs. reaching out soon. R2.02 2.04 (web) 2.06b 3.01b R3.02a 3.03b 3.04 system. to close out, run reports,
1.03b I let my sales rep know that R2.05
I'm going to see what I discuss timeline and upcoming I fill out a spreadsheet with I notice that things are My POC instructs me to R2.08 Rep. shows up, but cannot Rep. finalizes I have a trial run, so or handle cash.
I reach out to other I'm satisfied with the quote 1.10b R.2.03 I see what my set-up Rep. runs ad hoc 3.05 (remote) R3.06
else is out there. tasks with reps. I find out that it will my set-up information. wrong with my set-up and get remotely capture I anxiously await install equipment or my system set-up. that my employees can get 5.02
companies to and would like a written contract. I need to pitch to financial R2.01b I hear back from rep. will look like in. R2.09 R2.10 training on phone I start officially using I close out my
be a while until go-live. I discuss site in touch with rep. or images of my location. equipment delivery configure it correctly. familiar with the system. I am looking for
get sales visit decision makers and get I feel there is an unnecessary about when we are able I am surprised by the first I discuss cost or payment or remote access my system with operations the first night 5.01c
their approval. readiness needs and get config team to help fix it. and next steps. tool. solutions to issues that
and product demo. 1.08c delay between signing the to do the remote install R2.04 (email) charge. It was not what I discrepancy with my sales remote support. with the new system. I realize that some things
recommendations about what I need R3.01b have come up.
I am unable to reach my contract and moving on to next and go-live. I send a PDF or photo of my expected based on my rep., and am able to R3.01a R3.04 aren't done correctly.
to buy and do to get site ready for I fine tune my equipment
rep to get the contract after 1.10c steps (rare). installation. I am told to send my set-up to a rep. R2.06a sales experience. change my payment I take out all the equipment with assistance of rep. R3.03 My employees and I
I walk through the set-up options. I get trained on the experiment with the R3.05 5.01d
receiving quote (rare). I know that there's a limited set-up info to company. and get my system up and
and go into the back-end system by my rep. equipment in test-mode. I start officially using my I realize that there are
time promo offer where we running to test it out
R2.04 (web) myself to make edits. system with remote still tasks to get done.
can save money, I want with assistance of the rep.
I fill out the support.
to lock that price in
set-up spreadsheet. R2.06b
before it goes away.
I walk through the set-up
R3.01b
with the rep., and make
I take out all the equipment
edits as they come up.
and get my system up and
running to test it out
R2.06c on my own.
I walk through the set-up
with the rep., and instruct
them what to change.
© 2020 Harmonic Design, Inc.

www.thisisharmonic.com
Key takeaways
Understanding API users
01 While it’s clear that API products are sold and consumed
in complex technical environments, they may still be
subject to many of the same principles of physical goods
and services.
02 Bringing traditional business and product disciplines into

your design and development efforts is critical to success
because the consuming developer of your digital product
is actually a physical customer who is judging not only your
product but also all of the touchpoints along the way to
successful production use of that product.
27
03 While your technical developers may be supremely skilled
at creating functioning software, that skill set doesn’t neces-
sarily translate to creating end-to-end experiences that evoke
joy and delight from the confluence of actors who collaborate
to make your product successful in a customer context.
03
28
Understanding digital business
through value dynamics
This chapter introduces a new field “The aggregator and
of analysis: value dynamics. Value
creator of business value
dynamics provides a way of graphing
the relationships between
is no longer a company’s
stakeholders in a business ecosystem, supply chain or value chain
making it easier to vet business models, but rather a network’s
evaluate innovation opportunities, ecosystem.”
and mitigate against disruptive threats.

— ALE X MOA ZED, AUTHOR OF “MODERN
For APIs, the study of value dynamics MONOPOLIE S: WHAT IT TAKE S TO DOMINATE
THE 21ST CENTURY ECONOMY”
helps identify the most strategic API
product opportunities and determine
which capabilities should be delivered
through internal or third-party APIs.
Facebook generated over 70 billion dollars of revenue in 2019, but there was
a time when it was not clear whether the social network would ever become
profitable. Between 2007 and 2008, Facebook grew its user base from 20 to 100
million but lost $150 million. Articles at that time claimed Mark Zuckerberg had
“no idea how to make money off it.”
This analysis looks ludicrous in retrospect Value dynamics

but made sense when social networks like
We call this study of business value-based in-
Friendster and MySpace had grown quickly
teractions between digital ecosystem players
and then failed. People were skeptical about
“value dynamics.” Like thermodynamics and
whether or not a sustainable business model
fluid dynamics study systematic relation-
existed for social networks. Time has proven
ships in physics, value dynamics analyzes
them wrong.
behaviors and patterns of company interrela-
tionships in a particular business ecosystem.
In hindsight, could we have foreseen Face-
There are three levels within value dynamics
book’s success? The financial focus typical
to examine. At the highest level, we must
of business analysis missed key indicators of
consider the scope of the business ecosystem
Facebook’s momentum. Although Facebook
to be studied. We call this the “value network.”
29
wasn’t profitable, its revenue was growing.
In the middle level, we can understand the
More importantly, they were not just throwing
business models of companies within the
away money. Instead, they invested in the
value network by examining the various
infrastructure required to support their
“value exchanges” between companies. At
explosive user base and talent to build
the lowest level, we can look inside each
software that would eventually monetize the
company and study how their business capa-
user data. In the digital economy, business
bilities participate in “value creation.” Value
value is represented in more forms than
dynamics gives us a way of understanding a
money. Companies can trade products,
specific business landscape and a methodol-
services, reach, time, risk, and especially data
ogy for managing it.
to establish their fundamental value prop-
osition within a digital business ecosystem.
Examining these discrete transactions of Business ecosystems and value networks
value gives us a way of understanding the As long as business has existed, there have
business models of participating ecosystem been vital relationships between entities
players and a game board to evaluate beyond consumer and producer. The indus-
business strategies. trial revolution started with innovation in
manufacturing technologies, but its impact
was augmented tremendously by concurrent
“We call this study of business value-based interactions between digital
ecosystem players ‘value dynamics.’ Like thermodynamics and fluid
dynamics study systematic relationships in physics, value dynamics
analyzes behaviors and patterns of company interrelationships in a
particular business ecosystem.”
developments in transportation. Many indus- Accepting that you need to understand the
tries feature symbiotic relationships between ecosystem is a first step, but — given the
different company types: retailers and limitless interconnectivity of digital busi-
wholesalers, merchants and banks, medical nesses — you then need to determine what
providers and insurers, even social networks subsection of the ecosystem to study. How
and telecommunications providers. Orga- should that scope be determined? Clayton
nizations that depend on each other in this Christensen’s 1997 book The Innovator’s
way to deliver products and services to end Dilemma sought to explain the phenomenon
customers are said to be part of the same of incumbent enterprises being overtaken
business ecosystem. by smaller innovators and what established
companies could do to protect against this
Technology dramatically simplifies connect- trend. One of the book’s central concepts is
30
ing businesses in the digital age, leading to the notion of “value networks.” Christensen
more complex ecosystems with increasingly defines value networks as “The collection of
specialized participants. By removing logisti- upstream suppliers, downstream channels to
cal barriers through instant communication market, and ancillary providers that support a
and enabling focused processing through common business model within an industry.”
data precision, entire companies can devote By this definition, value networks (like figure
themselves to hyper-specialized functions 13) are synonymous with business ecosys-
in either the distribution or supply sides of tems, but Christensen takes it a step further
the ecosystem. Fiserv, the global financial and centers the value network around the
services conglomerate, is an excellent needs of a particular customer segment with
example of a digital ecosystem player. They a consistent set of wants, needs, or jobs-to-
are not a bank themselves but offer product be-done.
and channel services like check imaging and
online bill payments that earned them $10 A customer-centered value network gives
billion in 2019. Today, you can’t fully under- a useful context for analyzing a company’s
stand your business without understanding business model and its opportunities for
the ecosystem within which it lives. innovation. Before diving into the relation-
ship between innovations and their effect
on value networks, let us first look at how to
articulate an enterprise’s business digital economy’s volatility, it can be challeng-
model by using the various relationships ing to determine what business models can
between actors. be sustainable long term and how to ramp up
to that model in the short term. To overcome
Business models and value exchange these difficulties, let’s further our under-
standing of business models.
The digital economy is the ultimate risk/
reward proposition for established companies
In the simplest definition, a business model
and organizations. The growth opportunities
is a way a company makes money. When
are matched only by the potential ways of
surveying the types of business models, you
being disrupted. In order to navigate these
are likely to come across labels like aggre-
choppy waters, it is vital to have a north star
gator, freemium, or multi-level marketing.
to aid in decision making when there is un-
Using these templates to classify business
certainty on the horizon. A target business
models is problematic since they often focus
model can be this north star, demonstrating
on different things — “aggregator” is about
how digital touchpoints, automation, and
the relationship between customers and
data can augment your business. Given the
service providers, “freemium” about pricing,
Figure 13: An eCommerce value network
31
SOCIAL NETWORKS, ADVERTISERS
SEARCH ENGINES
CUSTOMERS ECOMMERCE WHOLESALERS

RETAILER
3RD PARTY SHIPPING

MARKETPLACE COMPANIES
3RD PARTY
PAYMENT
PROVIDER
By removing logistical barriers
through instant communication and
enabling focused processing through
data precision, entire companies can
devote themselves to hyper-specialized
functions in either the distribution or
supply sides of the ecosystem.
and “multi-level marketing” about a go-to- Alex Osterwalder, creator of the Business
market approach. Instead, we can use value Model Canvas, defines a business model as
networks to frame business models. For “The rationale of how an organization creates,
example, if you consider the value network delivers, and captures value.” From the value
for eCommerce shoppers, you can see several network perspective, value creation happens
complementary business models in play — within the nodes — something we’ll examine
retailers selling goods to shoppers, whole- in the next section — but value is delivered
salers supplying products, logistics providers and captured simultaneously between stake-
handling warehousing and distribution, ad- holders in a transaction known as a value
vertisers promoting on web properties, and exchange. Exchanged value can be tangible,
even the underlying telecom providers sup- such as money or goods, or intangible, such
porting communication. as customer reach or time savings (see figure
14). Depicting an organization’s set of value
To better understand these roles, we can exchanges within a value network turns out
examine the connections between the to be a useful way to illustrate its business
various stakeholders in the value network — model. We can use this approach to define
the way they exchange value with each other. business model patterns and archetypes that
Figure 14: Types of value that can be exchanged
33
MONEY PRODUCT SERVICE DATA
REACH TIME SAVINGS REDUCED RISK

The role of trust
Is trust a form of currency? Is trust a prerequisite of value exchange? Maybe
it’s both, or perhaps it’s all dependent upon context. As you survey the
different business models and exchanges of value, take a moment and reflect
on how trust is involved, exchanged, or proxied in exchanges.
Who is trusting who in the exchange? Is one the same time as the Facebook Portal
party lending its credibility to the other, which product launch, it stands to reason that
can then be capitalized on for other customer consumer trust is one of Facebook’s biggest
interactions? obstacles.
34
Take the Facebook Portal device as an Still, trust is not the only factor in establish-
example. Although Portal is widely hailed ing a viable business model. Companies like
as the easiest to use consumer video con- Monsanto and Volkswagen have maintained
ferencing device, Facebook’s entry into the exceptional industry performance despite
consumer electronics market has struggled to public backlash. However, in the digital world,
crack even two percent of the smart speaker where data — especially personally identi-
market. Comparatively, Amazon has an fiable data — is such a lucrative currency,
estimated 45% of the smart speaker market, consumer awareness and government regu-
followed by Google at just under 30%. lation trend toward protecting information.
It follows that companies who can balance
One might expect Facebook to be a strong their fluidity in exchanging and processing
rival to its web competitors for this new data will be the winners. If customers don’t
product category. So what is the reason perceive you as trustworthy, you may be able
for the struggle? One of the main concerns to win business through unique and compel-
consumers have about smart speakers is ling product differentiators, but that doesn’t
fear of surveillance, whether warranted mean that you will earn customer loyalty.
or not. With Facebook in the news for the
Cambridge Analytica data breach around
can be applied to new company and more money. The final value exchange is
industry contexts. between the newspaper and freelance jour-
nalists it might hire, giving them money and
Value exchange-defined business models exposure in return for exclusive content. This
business model was useful in the pre-digital
For example, take a business model that
age when access to content was more scarce.
was successful for decades but is now under
threat: print media. We could draw out the
In this century, this business model has been
value exchanges in a 20th-century newspa-
disrupted by the ubiquitous connectivity of
per’s business model like the one illustrated
the World Wide Web along with web-en-
in figure 15.
abled listing aggregators like eBay, match.
com, and Autotrader, as well as social media.
The newspaper delivers value to customers
Revisiting the story of Facebook, we can look
in the form of content and captures money
at its business model as a mutation of the
in return. On the other side, the newspaper
print media business model when mapped
provides value to advertisers in the form of
through its value exchanges (see figure 16 ).
exposure to its readers and captures even
Figure 15: A newspaper business model depicted through value exchange
35
FREELANCE
JOURNALISTS
MONEY
CONTENT
REACH
ADVERTISING
CONTENT MONEY
NEWSPAPER PRODUCT
READERS (MEDIA) COMPANY
MONEY REACH REACH

Interestingly, the business model structures present targeted ads. Clearly, the business
are similar (isomorphic in mathematical model can be analyzed and measured by
terms). What differentiates them from focusing on the value exchanges within the
each other are the details of the value being value network.
exchanged. Facebook might capture money
from its users in return for third-party apps or Digital value exchange through APIs
games, but the most significant value it gets
In the digital economy, APIs are conduits for
from its users comes from data and relation-
value exchange. In the Facebook example
ships that form a detailed personal profile.
previously mentioned, Facebook’s APIs would
This profile information is used in targeted
be used by the app developers at the top and
advertising, which delivers considerably more
possibly by advertisers on the right. Value
value to advertisers than the anonymous
exchange mapping is a great way to vet API
advertising of the print media industry. Lastly,
product ideas by putting them in the context
Facebook is even able to have its users — the
of an organization’s business model. To illus-
content consumers — be sources of content
trate this, let’s look at two well-known
themselves, leading to more time spent
API products.
on the platform and more opportunity to
Figure 16: Facebook’s business model
36
APP
DEVELOPERS
MONEY
CONTENT
REACH
CONTENT ADVERTISING
MONEY
USERS FACEBOOK PRODUCT

COMPANY
MONEY REACH TARGETED

REACH
CONTENT DATA
First, the Google Maps API is one of the VALUE ENGINEERING
biggest success stories of the API economy. This value exchange-based approach
Companies like Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb would to business modeling has been in use
not have been able to launch without it. by Jaap Gordijn and Roel Wieringa
since the early 2000s. Their e3value
The business model is quite simple. Google methodology provides a modeling
Maps API consumers exchange money for language to visualize and study
unique geolocations services (see figure business models, and their company,
17). Those consumers use the value they The Value Engineers, helps organiza-
capture from the API to provide location-en- tions apply this approach. They have
abled services, including geo-targeted ad- recently published business model
vertisements, to their customers, who may analyses for Netflix, Facebook, and
exchange any form of value in return. The Apple Pay.
Google Maps API business model follows the
“API supplier” pattern since it mimics how a
supplier might function in the manufacturing
economy, like a high-end stereo manufactur-
Figure 17: “API supplier” business model for the Google Maps API
37
LOCATION-ENABLED ADVERTISING
SERVICES MONEY
MOBILE AND GOOGLE

APP USERS
WEB APPS MAPS API
MONEY MONEY
REACH USER DATA
DATA
er for automobiles. There is one interesting This Twilio example starts to show the power
detail in this business model that is specific to and potential of the value network approach.
the digital economy. Google is getting more Note how the telco carriers play the role
than just money from its API consumers. of “API wholesaler” in Twilio’s digital supply
Every API interaction provides data that chain. The mutually beneficial relationship
Google can contextualize and correlate with and interdependence between Twilio and
other data. This data can be used to create the telcos are a great illustration of value
additional value for exchange in other areas dynamics. Companies like Plaid and Nylas
of Google’s vast value network. have replicated this API retailer business
model pattern in banking and corporate com-
A more complex API business model munications respectively.
example is Twilio. Like Google Maps, Twilio’s
APIs grew substantially in support of the Once you have mapped out the value
mobile application explosion that followed exchanges in the value network, you can then
the launch of Apple’s app store in 2008. introspect the flow of value within a particu-
Recognizing that mobile app developers lar company or organization. Doing this will
would need global access to phone- and net- help you find the sources of value that will
work-based communications services, Twilio be delivered and the use of captured value.
(see figure 18) delivers time-to-market value Most importantly, this approach will help you
38
to its API consumers by providing globally ac- identify the core business capabilities you
cessible telco services and a superb developer need to create differentiating value within the
experience. Its consumers have been happy value network.
to pay for this, especially early on in the app
economy gold rush when time was money. Business capabilities and value creation
On the other side of the value network, Twilio
The Coca-Cola formula. Heinz’s ketchup
has a vast network of telco suppliers to whom
recipe. McDonald’s special sauce. These food
it pays money in exchange for the services
and beverage giants have spent years protect-
it aggregates. Twilio’s business model follows
ing their secrecy, knowing how intertwined
the “API retailer” pattern since they provide
their brands are with these key elements.
similar value to their consumers that a retail
In business vernacular, the term “special
store might by targeting a specific group
sauce” is even used commonly to identify a
of customers and stocking their inventory
company’s fundamental value proposition —

from an array of wholesalers. Although they
the aspect of its business that sets it apart.
may not collect and synthesize data the way
The irony is that each of these companies
Google does, Twilio’s unique digital value
has differentiating capabilities beyond the
comes from understanding how to appeal to
mythical recipes of their flagship products.
software developers as direct customers.
Coca-Cola has supremely flexible distribution,
Heinz’s unique manufacturing capability, and
McDonald’s supply chain excellence, to name for its customers and shareholders. The data
just a few examples. Successful enterprises distribution capabilities a government uses
need to build up numerous sources of value to provide tax transparency create a different
creation. This is especially true in the digital type of value for its citizens and local busi-
economy. Because the digital landscape nesses. In a strictly digital example, a social
offers so many opportunities for intercon- network’s user graph data creates value that
necting and delegating, it also lays bare is monetized through advertising. All of these
the value propositions of its players. If your illustrate how core capabilities are central to
company doesn’t have differentiating capabil- successful business models.
ities, it won’t last long.
These examples are all fundamental to their
Going back to Alex Osterwalder’s definition respective companies’ value propositions.
of business models cited previously, you can What about a capability like job applicant
think of business capabilities as where your screening? This would likely have a small con-
organization creates value. The data analytics tribution to an insurance company’s business
capabilities an insurance company uses in but be a core capability in a human capital
its actuarial modeling allow it to create value management SaaS provider. Enterprises of a
Figure 18: Twilio’s “API retailer” business model
39
GLOBAL
REACH
AGGREGATION,
HIGH USABILITY
TELCO REGIONAL TELCO
SERVICES SERVICES
MOBILE AND TWILIO TELCO

WEB APPS APIS CARRIER APIS
MONEY MONEY
Context in
value exchanges
Did you ever hear the story of the man who was able to trade a paper clip
for a house? Kyle MacDonald told the story in a TED talk of how he was
able to make a series of trades that turned one red paper clip into a pen,
then a doorknob, then a camp stove, and ultimately obtained the title to a
home in Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada — a town that now features a statue
commemorating the experience.
Kyle did it by always trading for an item that interacts with their Google Maps API.
held little value for the current owner but This interaction data can be used to identify
would be seen as valuable by other prospec- trends, inform their business customers,
tive traders. In one notable example, he etc. On top of that, in the likely event that
traded a snow globe featuring the band Kiss they can correlate those interactions with a
40
for a part in a movie. His trading partner was known user, they can feed it into their
actor and diehard Kiss fan Corbin Bernsen, advertising engine’s personalization capa-
someone who uniquely over-valued the snow bilities. In this way, Google is getting paid
globe and undervalued the film part. The double — with money and with data — for its
lesson here is that when it comes to value mapping services.
exchanges, context matters.
When designing value exchanges, consider
To give a digital example of this, consider the context of your trading partners. Are you
Google Maps. Its value proposition is clear: giving them value for free in the way you
an unmatched geolocation data set with interact? Is there data they covet that you are
enhanced information around businesses, giving away? And what do they have that may
traffic, and more. Google Maps is deliver- be more valuable to you than it is to them?
ing value through its data. But what about These questions may make value exchanges
the other direction? What value is Google appear adversarial, but they don’t need to be.
capturing in return? Because of the clear As we will discuss later, having partners who
value provided by the mapping data, Google can create value where others can’t benefits
can charge its Maps consumers a premium. the whole ecosystem. The key is to ensure
However, keep in mind that Google is also you consider the context of every piece of
capturing more data as each new user value being exchanged.
significant size will have multiple layers of ca- value? Do any of these capabilities act as
pabilities spanning many business domains. bottlenecks within the process of creating,
As important as business capabilities are to packaging, or delivering value? This process
devising a corporate strategy, it can be easy can highlight surprising capabilities that are
to descend into the bottomless pit of capabil- distant from customer interactions but still
ity modeling and industry taxonomies. There core to the organization’s value proposition.
is a better way. Consider a retail chain that delivers value by
getting products ordered online in customers’
To identify an organization’s most critical hands as quickly as possible (see figure 19).
capabilities, you can measure its role in Capabilities such as predictive analytics
enabling the value exchanges that define its used for inventory forecasting, warehouse
business model. For each value exchange, dispatching to retrieve products, and algo-
what capabilities are involved in deliver- rithmic selection of logistics providers would
ing value? What capabilities are involved in all contribute to the creation and delivery of
capturing value? What capabilities create this value to customers. Identifying the most
or source the delivered value, and what ca- valuable capabilities can help companies pri-
pabilities augment or synthesize captured oritize their work.
Figure 19: Retailer capabilities creating time savings value
41
ASAP
DELIVERY
PRODUCT
ORDER RETAILER
INVENTORY FORECASTING
CUSTOMERS WHOLESALERS
WAREHOUSE DISPATCH
LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT
PAYMENT
SHIPPING
COMPANIES
“The data analytics capabilities an insurance company uses in its
actuarial modeling allow it to create value for its customers and
shareholders. The data distribution capabilities a government uses
to provide tax transparency create a different type of value for its
citizens and local businesses.”
Identifying needed capabilities is only part Decomposing an organization into API-en-

of the story. The effectiveness of a capability abled business capabilities is a proven path
comes not just from how well it performs its in the digital economy. By building its core
function but also from how easily it can be capabilities behind APIs, Amazon was able to
connected and composed. You could create turn its infrastructure provisioning capabilities
the world’s most sophisticated machine learn- into what is now its most profitable business
ing-trained model, but without an accessible unit, AWS. Companies like Lyft and Uber
interface, it would be as impactful as the pro- have disrupted the transportation industry
verbial tree falling in the forest when no one by building web-native services on top of
is around to hear. In the digital economy, the third-party APIs from AWS, as well as Twilio,
most effective business capabilities are useable Stripe, and Google Maps.
by multiple value exchanges, including unantic-
42
ipated exchanges. In a complex enterprise, ca- McDonald’s moved to an API-led approach
pabilities may be layered as dependent chains in overhauling their software landscape,
on top of one another and coordinated allowing them to open up digital kiosks in-store
across many lines of business. Software-en- and offer delivery services through partners
abled capabilities thrive in such an envi- including UberEats. By combining a deep un-
ronment, especially when they are made derstanding of your company’s value network
pluggable through APIs. Core capabilities with API-enabled capabilities that support
exposed through APIs can easily be woven it, you will be able to unlock your company’s
into new digital channels and user experienc- digital potential and amplify its impact through
es, creating a gateway for value exchange. the network effects of your digital ecosystem.
Organizations can also consume API-en-
abled capabilities from third parties to create Value tracing
value exchanges with suppliers and service
As we’ve shown, mapping out a value
providers. This is how organizations shift from

network through value exchanges and val-
opaque, high cost-to-serve operations to highly
ue-creating business capabilities is useful at
automated, self-serve platform offerings.
the macro level. To gain even more insight
into the structure of a value network, we can
examine the relationships between the types
of value being exchanged — a technique we
will call “value tracing.” In value tracing, you pay for their preferred property, leading to
can walk through each value exchange and monetary value captured by Airbnb and a
determine its dependencies on other value percentage of that value then delivered to the
exchanges and business capabilities. Under- owners. See what the value exchanges look
standing the complete flow of value in this like at this level in figure 20.
way helps determine the best approach to
scaling up the business model. This is a minimum view of the value network,
but not a viable one. To make this business
Here is an example of value tracing. Consider model function, Airbnb needs to offer value
the value network of Airbnb, an online mar- above and beyond what a renter could obtain
ketplace for rental accommodations. As is if they were to go directly to a property
typical for a marketplace provider, Airbnb acts owner. To attract renters, Airbnb must
as a matchmaker between property renters provide selection and searchability, both of
and property owners. At a basic level, Airbnb which manifest themselves as time savings
captures value from owners in the form of — and possibly cost savings — value to the
properties to rent, which it brokers into value renter (see figure 21). Therefore, an Airbnb
delivered to renters. Renters then book and business capability to provide customizable
Figure 20: Airbnb basic value exchange of rentals for money
43
PROPERTY PROPERTY
RENTAL RENTAL
RENTERS AIRBNB OWNERS
RENT PORTION
MONEY OF RENT
The effectiveness of a capability comes
not just from how well it performs its
function but also from how easily it can
be connected and composed.
searching and filtering on their property tion. So, partner onboarding and marketing
listings would create value. They also need functions, such as SEO and targeted offers,
a critical mass of attractive property inventory could be vital value creators in order to build
to draw audiences looking to rent. To get that, marketplace momentum.
they need to attract owners. And to attract
owners, they need to have a captive audience So far, we have used value tracing to show
of customers. This leads to a bit of a catch-22. that, to make money from renters, Airbnb
A way around this would be to partner with needs to offer them convenience in finding
bulk rental providers to fill the inventory and and renting the properties they want. This
to invest in marketing for customer acquisi-
Figure 21: Virtuous circle of “reach” value, cycling between property inventory and renters
MULTIPLE
LISTING
SERVICES
CRITICAL MASS OF
45
RENTAL PROPERTIES
PROPERTY
RENTAL PORTION
OF RENT
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
OF RENTERS
CRITICAL MASS OF
RENTAL PROPERTIES
PROPERTY PROPERTY
RENTAL RENTAL
PARTNER ONBOARDING
RENTERS AIRBNB OWNERS
TARGETED MARKETING
RENT PORTION
MONEY OF RENT
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE OF RENTERS
OF RENTERS
convenience requires scaling up both their parties. This payments service delivers value
inventory of property listings and their ad- to both renters and owners and gives Airbnb
dressable market in the form of potential visibility and control over the financial flow in
renters. A critical element of Airbnb’s their value network.
business model is being a trusted market-
place (see figure 22). Earning the trust of The last step we’ll examine in this value
renters and owners helps to maintain and tracing example is to think through how
grow the scale of the marketplace. This trust Airbnb earned this trust. Undoubtedly, brand
enables Airbnb to offer other sources of marketing efforts play a significant role in
value, such as mediating payments between
Figure 22: Internal business capabilities driving “reduced-risk” value, amplifying “reach”
MULTIPLE
LISTING
46
SERVICES
CRITICAL MASS OF
RENTAL PROPERTIES
PROPERTY
RENTAL PORTION
OF RENT
TRUSTED
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
PROVIDER
OF RENTERS
CRITICAL MASS OF
RENTAL PROPERTIES
PROPERTY PROPERTY
RENTAL AIRBNB RENTAL
CUSTOMER REVIEWS
RENTERS OWNERS
ACCESS MANAGEMENT
RENT UX CHANNELS PORTION

MONEY OF RENT
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
OF RENTERS OF RENTERS
building trust, but many business capabili- IN THE INTEREST OF TIME
ties can also play a role. Providing a positive
Value dynamics is useful in many
customer experience with the platform
aspects of digital business strategy,
builds trust. Demonstrating security in that
but it does not help with all strategic
experience is also a trust builder. Another big
areas of an organization. Notably,
builder of trust is customer-generated data.
value dynamics does not reflect
In the case of Airbnb, this takes the form
the time or effort it would take to
of property reviews from previous renters.
implement value-creating business
Therefore, consumer-oriented interfaces,
capabilities or other work needed
robust access control, and a customer review
to effectively cultivate a sustainable
service are all business capabilities that
ecosystem. Adaptability and agility
create value for Airbnb. Using value tracing
are hallmarks of successful digital
to analyze Airbnb’s business model, we have
organizations. Implementing an ac-
uncovered high-value business capabilities
cessible, composable set of business
and interdependence of the elements in
capabilities helps your organiza-
their value proposition.
tion be more responsive to market
demands. But, so does adopting
Mapping out an API ecosystem using value
effective delivery methodologies,
dynamics clarifies the structure and rela-
47
establishing appropriate principles,
tionship of business models within that
and building a winning culture. Fine
ecosystem. Once you decompose an
tuning the organization to focus on
ecosystem in this way, you can use it as a
time-to-value is a separate and com-
game board to analyze the current state of
plementary area to value dynamics.
value networks and strategize future moves.
Let’s now examine the many opportunities to

apply value dynamics in the context of APIs.
Value dynamics provides a context to better

understand an organization’s business model
within a business ecosystem and the role-spe-
cific business capabilities play in enabling
that business model. In doing this, value

dynamics creates a game board for business
strategy, opening up new possibilities ranging
from minor maintenance of existing business
models to disruptive innovation. Let’s explore
these methods in more detail.
Applying value dynamics
ANALYZE EXISTING BUSINESS DEFINE NEW BUSINESS FIND NEW VALUE
MODELS MODELS CHANNELS
AUGMENT CURRENT OPTIMIZE SUPPLY SIDE CROSS VALUE

VALUE EXCHANGES EXCHANGES NETWORKS
Analyzing existing business models → Are we maximizing value capture in our

exchanges?
The most straightforward application of
48
value dynamics is using it to assess existing
→ Are there any “invasive species” in the
business models. An organization can think
network that could extract too much value
through its current customer segments and
and kill the ecosystem in the long term?
product offerings to determine the value
networks in which they operate. From there,
Continually updating and tracking the value
they can map out the various actors and
network will help keep your strategy on track.
value exchanges and trace the flow of value
to surface their core business capabilities.
Defining new business models
Once mapped, it becomes easier to answer
critical strategic questions. The process to define and assess new
business models is similar to mapping an
→ Do we have the right differentiating existing business model. You can start with
capabilities to thrive in this ecosystem? a blank canvas approach, thinking of what

value your organization could offer a par-
→ Are there any value exchanges where we ticular customer segment in the context
are imbalanced? of a specific need, and then mapping out
the potential value exchanges and actors
in the value network. Another approach is
to map your competitors’ business models, Augmenting current value exchanges
seeing whether you can adapt them to your
The balance of each value exchange in a
organization. A third approach, and quite a
business ecosystem is determined by what
powerful one, is to map out business models
is being exchanged and the difference in
of digital innovators in industries outside of
perceived value by the exchanging actors.
your own. In doing this, value dynamics helps
Using value dynamics, you can zoom in on
to identify business model patterns that are
each of the value exchanges your organi-
industry agnostic. How can an online retail-
zation is engaged in and assess whether
er’s business model be applied in financial
the balance is appropriate. This allows you
services? Can a cybersecurity provider’s
to address situations where you are giving
business model be employed in the home
away too much value for too little in return.
insurance industry? This could have been one
Even more promisingly, this also allows you
method used by the founder of Stripe
to see if there is anything your exchange
to pivot from being an account aggregation
partner could “throw into the deal” that is
app to adapting the Twilio telco model to
of little value to them but could be made
financial services, becoming an API broker
valuable by you. Data is of particular interest
for banking information. It is often this third
here. Is there data that could be included in
approach that can identify groundbreaking
the exchange that you could use to create
digital opportunities.
49
value in another context, possibly to another
partner? Is there data you are already
Finding new value channels
receiving that is not being captured and used
Looking at a value network provides an to your advantage? Keep in mind that the aim
intuitive way of identifying missing links in the of augmenting value exchanges is not to sink
ecosystem. This is especially true when those your partner but rather to create more value
gaps are between your organization and the from the exchange.
end customer. The most successful digital
companies have all recognized the impor- Optimizing supply-side exchanges
tance of direct customer engagement. If your
Many exchanges in a value network exist
organization has no digital channel estab-
as enabling pieces of a broader solution to
lished for value exchange with the ultimate
meet the end customer’s needs. Whether
beneficiary of your products and services, it
these are supplier relationships “behind”
will likely become an issue. Other gaps could

your organization in the value network or
exist too, often caused by technical obstacles
service relationships “beside” your orga-
and filled by potentially unnecessary inter-
nization, it is crucial to think about the
mediaries. Once gaps have been identified, it
optimal function placement that fits your
is a natural next step to see what new value
fundamental value proposition and your
exchanges can be opened up and what APIs
intended business model. For an online
will be needed to enable the exchanges.
“The non-rivalrous nature of data makes it an ideal currency to consider
for exchange between value networks. In fact, if we deconstruct the
Facebook business model discussed above, we can view it as the
intersection of two value networks connected by data — the value
network for providing sticky content to social network users and the
value network for providing advertising targets to product companies.”
retailer whose customers value delivery time social network users and the value network
above other factors, is it appropriate to have for providing advertising targets to product
product delivery sole-sourced to a single companies. It is the personal data captured
provider? Should there be a mix? Should it be in the former that creates the profit machine
insourced? In the other direction, there may in the latter. Google’s overall business
be high cost, commoditized functions (often model adds several dimensions to this, with
referred to as “undifferentiated heavy lifting”) value networks for web searchers, location
being performed inside your company that seekers, phone users, emailers, homeown-
could be moved to third-party providers. ers, and many others all feeding the adver-
Deciding whether to insource or outsource tising network. Established companies with
functions has long been a topic for strategic different business units and distinct customer
50
consideration, but value dynamics gives segments likely have untapped opportunities
clarity and context. to create these data wormholes to connect
their disparate business models. Value
Crossing value networks dynamics provides a means to that end.
The last application of value dynamics may

be the trickiest but also has the highest
potential for impact. For an organization
operating in multiple value networks, it is
worth assessing how those networks can be
interconnected. What value can be captured
from one and delivered to another? The
non-rivalrous nature of data makes it an ideal
currency to consider for exchange between

value networks. In fact, if we deconstruct
the Facebook business model discussed
above, we can view it as the intersection of
two value networks connected by data — the
value network for providing sticky content to
Key takeaways
Understanding digital business through
value dynamics
Value dynamics is an impactful way of visually mapping out business

01
ecosystems, articulating business models through the set of value
exchanges in a value network, and putting an organization’s business
capabilities in context based on the value they create.
02 In a digital ecosystem, APIs play a vital role as conduits for value

exchange and the channel by which created value is distributed.
03 There are many ways you can apply value dynamics to benefit
your business, from assessing the current state to finding opportunities
for innovation.
51
In the next chapter, we will explore the related concepts of bundling
and unbundling and see how these techniques complement the value
dynamics approach.
04
52
Bundling and unbundling
This chapter explores the dichotomous “There’s only two ways I
product strategy practices of unbundling
know of to make money:
and bundling. You will learn how
bundling and unbundling.”
these practices have been applied in

the digital economy and about how — JIM BARK SDALE, PRE SIDENT AND CEO, NETSCAPE
unbundling, in particular, is a useful

tactic for API-enabled products. We
will also explore the pros and cons of
both practices.
In the early days of the internet Jim Barksdale, President and CEO of Netscape,
was asked about his concern regarding whether Microsoft would bundle a
browser in their Windows OS product. In response, Barksdale famously quipped,
“There’s only two ways I know of to make money: bundling and unbundling.” This
pithy aphorism was true then and remains true today.
In past decades people have spoken about defensive acquisitions to prevent the intro-
Oracle unbundling IBM or Google unbundling duction of unpredictable volatility for estab-
the internet service provider (ISP) industry. lished brands and enterprises. Soon after
In today’s world of ever crumbling barriers the successful launch of Dollar Shave Club,
to entry, we are all witness to the disruptive, Unilever acquired the new brand to prevent
algorithmic unbundling of global ecosystems further erosion in market share through
like music (via Napster, Apple, and streaming waning consumer loyalty combined with a
services), transportation (via Tesla, ride-shar- convenient purchase/subscription model
ing, scooters, etc.), money (via blockchain-en- on top of a “good enough” product. After
abled digital currencies), and space (via Facebook unbundled Google’s stranglehold
SpaceX, Blue Origin, etc.).
“Unbundling is the act of breaking up
53
Addition and subtraction packages previously only offered
Unbundling is the act of breaking up as a whole and then providing
packages previously only offered as a whole particular packaged parts at a
and then providing particular packaged parts
scale and cost unmatchable by the
at a scale and cost unmatchable by the old
order that had an established stream of old order that had an established
value. For example, streaming services like stream of value.”
Spotify and Pandora unbundled the tradi-
tional music industry by removing the need on internet advertising (by replacing free
to “own music.” After several years of vol- text search with socially relevant content),
atility, the music industry has completed a Facebook then purchased both Instagram
fundamental shift in financial and operating and WhatsApp, as they saw these upstarts
models to re-establish a steady stream of pre-
unbundling them.
dictable revenue revolving around streaming
rights, merchandise, and a greater focus on The core insight to be gained here is — if an
live events. enterprise is not already figuring out how to
unbundle itself to drive dynamism into its
The disruptive power of unbundling is so financial and operating models, someone
intense that it often drives a bias towards
else is. Lest any doubt remains, look back the media and telecommunications indus-
at the current shifts in the ecosystems that tries, where phone and cable operators
many considered to be the most stable: sell “packaged sets” of value targeted
to maximize the basket size consumers
→ Currency — Centralized currencies are now transactions. In many of these contexts,
forced to compete with decentralized, the customer doesn’t have the option of
blockchain-enabled coin offerings that removing “unwanted features” within the
have unbundled the concept of trust that bundle, and as a result, not all consumers
makes state-backed currencies valuable. respond well to this practice. When bundling
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of offerings for consumers, enterprises must
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), attempt to balance and manage customers’
has advocated the need for digital concerns who may resent being “forced to
currencies to allow banks to remain pay for features they don’t use.”
competitive and relevant as consumers
seek ways to achieve quicker and cheaper Progressive bundling
settlement capabilities in financial
Even when organizations use bundling to
transactions.
explicitly lock in consumers and capture
more revenue from its customers, bundling
→ Space — Like currency, space has long been
54
isn’t always received poorly. Amazon’s Prime
the sole domain of wealthy nation states
offering is amongst the most loved offerings
given the sheer cost of infrastructure and
of the retail behemoth, while the price of the
capital necessary to create and sustain
bundle itself only represents an “access fee” to
the capability of space flight. In recent
other offerings of value (e.g., free shipping on
years, internet titans like Elon Musk and
other purchases, free streaming on a curated
Jeff Bezos, along with business magnate,
set of media in Amazon’s video service, etc.)
Richard Branson, have all entered the
Automotive “trims” and technology packages
space race and proved that private
are another example of successful progressive
industry could not only compete in the
bundling where consumers respond positively
space industry, they could provide a cost
with their wallets. Research has shown that
and performance advantage compared
bundles work best when the consumer has
to nation-backed space agencies that
the choice between purchasing the bundled
aren’t so adept at introducing innovative
offering or the unbundled components. It

technologies like reusable rocketry.
seems that the presence of the unbundled
option provides the consumer with the confi-
On the other hand, bundling is the act of
dence that the bundle isn’t a gimmick being
combining offerings into “packaged bundles”
forced onto them and is more aligned with
that represent the products offered by an
a “volume discount,” where they’re getting
enterprise. Bundling is quite common in
more value for their dollar.
The disruptive power of unbundling
is so intense that it often drives a bias
towards defensive acquisitions to
prevent the introduction of unpredictable
volatility for established brands
and enterprises.
The role of API products in the “APIs are the standardized
context of unbundling interface to data, capabilities,
As illustrated in many of the previous and infrastructure that no longer
examples, API products in the context of needs to be built from scratch
bundling and unbundling represent both over decades. APIs have, to a
the tool for disruptors and the shield for es-
large degree, leveled the playing
tablished enterprises. The prime reason
for this dynamic is how pivotal a role APIs
field between enterprises and
play in crumbling barriers to entry into in- entrepreneurs and invited hordes
dustries long since considered unassailable. of Davids to compete with newly
APIs are the standardized interface to data, vulnerable Goliaths.”
capabilities, and infrastructure that no longer
needs to be built from scratch over decades.
Across industries, the forces unleashed from
APIs have, to a large degree, leveled the
a 24/7 system of near-instant communica-
playing field between enterprises and en-
tions, diminished consumer loyalty, decen-
trepreneurs and invited hordes of Davids to
tralized systems of trust, and eroded barriers
compete with newly vulnerable Goliaths.
to entry — redefining what’s required to be
competitive with prospects and customers.
56
Looking back to the first chapter, remember
the key insights that Jeff Bezos and Amazon
When these newly vibrant forces combined
leveraged to create the unprecedented
with a contextual shift in the ease of introduc-
AWS offering:
ing successful competitive disruption, enter-
prises worldwide adapted and responded.
→ At its core, a product is a unit or
These adaptations have, more often than not,
vehicle of value delivery from a producer
taken the form of investing in and formal-
to a consumer.
izing API programs to protect and enhance
existing value streams and lean further in to
→ APIs can be enablers of products,
create brand new value streams from assets
components of products, and products
and capabilities previously hard to monetize.
themselves, even if an external customer
never sees them.
→ APIs have high ROI potential in any

enterprise context because they can allow
for unbundling and bundling of value.
Look before you leap forms the previous one (e.g., in revenue,
margin, operating cost, etc.), cannibaliza-
With the high profile nature of the API tion doesn’t represent a problem for an
successes of Amazon with AWS, Facebook enterprise. The problem, however, is that
with embeddable widgets, and Twilio predicting the results ahead of time is not
with advanced telephony APIs, an observer so simple. Often, like in the following ESPN
might ask, “Why haven’t more enterprises and Edmunds examples, the new source
jumped in with both feet and developed of revenue merely lowers the total revenue
API-enabled business models?” The answer — received by the enterprise because the new
success isn’t guaranteed. offering wasn’t surrounded by sufficient
controls and mitigation strategies to protect
One has only to look at the lackluster or enhance the existing lines of business.
attempts of ESPN and Edmunds open API
programs to get the sense that there’s more
“Cannibalization is a dynamic
to the API business model than opening
a storefront and selling your unbundled where enterprises gain revenue
assets to eager customers. The essence of through a channel at the cost
these celebrated public API openings of losing revenue through another.
followed by quick retreats is “unmitigated
Sometimes cannibalization
57
cannibalization.”
is desired.”
Cannibalization is a dynamic where enter-
prises gain revenue through a channel at
the cost of losing revenue through another.
Sometimes cannibalization is desired. In
scenarios where the new channel outper-
ESPN and Edmunds
learn a hard lesson
After a highly publicized two-year effort to stand up a monetized channel

of revenue for its sports data, ESPN shut down its developer ecosystem with
an announcement on its website:
Dear ESPN API Developers, We want to thank all of you for supporting
58
the ESPN API, and we hope you found value
Since the launch of the ESPN Developer
interacting with the service over the past
Center in March 2012 the capabilities and
two years.
direction of our API program have continued
to evolve in order to serve sports fans in the
The ESPN API Team
best way possible.
As part of that evolution, we have made the

difficult decision to discontinue our public
How is it that a premium brand like ESPN
APIs, which will enable us to better align engi-
couldn’t make a set of profitable API
neering resources with the growing demand
products? While the ESPN team hasn’t
to develop core ESPN products on our
released any other information in the years
API platform.
since the shutdown, there are a small set of
likely culprits that we can ascribe the quick

Effective today, we will no longer be issuing
demise to.
public API keys. Developers utilizing the ESPN
API with a public API key may continue to do
so until Monday, December 8, 2014, at which
point the keys will no longer be active.
→ Insufficient control of the data/content possible), and their prime source of revenue
in question. Real-time sports scores aren’t comes from paid advertising. While both
exactly the rarest of commodities on the ESPN and Edmunds might have had paying
internet. Quite the opposite actually. What customers for their API offerings, the revenue
the ESPN team may not have considered generated through this new channel canni-
was how they would make their API worthy balized the revenue of their flagship advertis-
of a paid subscription when customers ing offerings. At the same time, this lowered
perceive the data as freely available across the barrier to entry for new competitors who
the internet. A fundamental precept of were targeting the same audiences.
content/data marketing via an API is that
in order to support paid access, you must The lesson to be learned from these forays
have non-commoditized data/content to into data/content monetization is not “don’t
offer in the first place. offer a monetized API for data/content.”
Instead, the lesson is, “do your homework!”
→ The inability to control audience and Take the time to understand the value
revenue cannibalization. If your enterprise offerings of your enterprise and evaluate the
derives revenue and profits from audience opportunities for monetization by using
consumption of content (i.e., advertising), value dynamics and ecosystem lens. Other
giving/selling that content to others is organizations like Google, Twitter, and
59
always a risky play because you allow other Facebook have all sustained content-driven
parties to compete with you for the same API products that work within their ecosys-
audience you are targeting. tems. Running a successful data/content
business requires a deliberate approach to
Edmunds had the same problem as ESPN governing access to your content in a way that
because automotive listings data is not a balances access/syndication with channel/
highly controlled ecosystem (i.e., the auto- revenue protection.
motive dealers specifically want their listings
to be available on as many platforms as
Key takeaways
Bundling & unbundling
01 When developing a business model that leverages an

API channel of revenue, it is critical to understand the
underlying business context and value dynamics at play.
02 With a firm understanding of the playing field, you

can make a holistic API product strategy that allows
you to create an offering that is valuable to potential
customers and doesn’t represent a net-negative to
enterprise financial performance.
60
05
Developing and executing an API
go-to-market strategy
61
This chapter explores the chicken- “It takes 20 years to build
egg problems of bringing digital
a reputation and five
products to market without having
a built-in audience anxiously waiting
minutes to ruin it. If you
think about that, you’ll do
for your next release. We examine

the use of “freemium” products and things differently.”
tiered offerings to bootstrap audience — WARREN BUFFET T
engagement and present them in
a structure to frame a go-to-market
strategy grounded in audience building.
With the core concepts and business model opportunities of API products in
hand, you have the ingredients needed to create and execute an enterprise-level
API product strategy. In this chapter, we will discuss how the principles we have
discussed can ground your go-to-market strategy and focus on:
→ The underlying business context Understanding brand elasticity in

that frames where and how value can
an API context
be exchanged across organizational
boundaries. A central aspect to any API product strategy
is a clear understanding of the audiences you
→ The nature of bundled product offerings will be attempting to inspire to partner with
and how this simple business concept your enterprise and how likely they are to:
has powered API-enabled business
models have enterprises around the world → Devote technology resources to make
scrambling to fend off disruptors with no use of your API offerings.
legacy or baggage to weigh them down.
→ Commit capital resources to pay for
→ The tools and artifacts necessary to your product.
62
understand and plan for the complex
interactions to recruit and onboard new → Couple their operations and product
users and partners to an API platform. offerings to your platform.
→ The appropriate mindset to apply when These commitments and interdependencies

using terms like “API as a product” and are typically not made on impulse and may
“developer as a customer.” have extended evaluation periods requiring
data gathering, analysis, and corporate
budgeting cycles. The complexity of the
commitment process within your target
consuming organizations should not deter
you from moving forward. Instead, it should
focus your attention on the first critical ingre-
dient in your API product strategy — audience

and customer acquisition.
If your enterprise goal is to launch
and eventually monetize a public API
product set, the three-step path to
that destination is: build the channel,
fill the channel, scale the channel.
The developer community you enterprise with a set of developers on the
bench waiting for unplanned project work
imagine doesn’t exist… yet
to come around doesn’t exist. Development
When enterprise leaders hear about API capacity in any company with an annual
monetization and the revenue potential budget process is amongst the most scarce
within their systems, they all too often commodities in the corporate world. Projects
start pushing teams to launch products and budgets are set months — if not years
to market. These leaders are missing the — in advance. Getting access to your target
steps in between launching products and customer’s developer capacity for something
generating revenue from them. If digital new requires not only a compelling offering
products and transactions are already part but also a sense of trust and confidence that
of your offerings, then you might be in the your enterprise is capable of delivering a
clear. However, if your enterprise doesn’t reliable and robust product service. If your
have an active API-driven revenue channel, enterprise isn’t already in the business of
that’s another story. There are some major delivering APIs or publically available digital
“Every global enterprise lives in a world of scarcity. Scarcity not only

applies to natural resources, but it also applies to labor — in this
64
case, ‘developer capacity.’ Despite the amazing product you intend to
deliver, an enterprise with a set of developers on the bench waiting for
unplanned project work to come around doesn’t exist.”
obstacles to API adoption and revenue gener- products, your brand is likely not elastic
ation that have nothing to do with the lack of enough to support the significant change in
a product in the marketplace — the lack of a your target customer’s technology spend.
thriving developer community, or a customer
base with a “reason to believe”. Without Let’s say one of your partners/vendors came
an established and trusted digital product, to you and your leadership with a proposal
rapidly growing either of these from scratch is to divert your existing ROI-justified project
very difficult. plans in favor of leveraging their APIs within
your business-critical value streams. If this

Every global enterprise lives in a world of partner had no existing track record of
scarcity. Scarcity not only applies to natural digital products and services — no APIs with
resources, but it also applies to labor — in existing customers, no vibrant development
this case, “developer capacity.” Despite the community touting them, and no history of
amazing product you intend to deliver, an performance or reliability stats — how would
this proposal sit with you and your leader- that started, and many times continued,
ship? This seems like a large leap of faith for as free offerings (e.g., browsers, webmail,
anyone to consider. And on top of the risk social networking, maps/navigation, games/
and change they ask you to take on, they apps that are free to download, etc.). Despite
want you to pay to use their APIs! How likely the long list of success stories where online
is it that your enterprise would take such a offerings have a “free/freemium” tier as a
proposal seriously? mechanism to cultivate an audience, many
leaders and participants in API monetiza-
The “freemium to premium” tion programs struggle with the business
justification to take the first step. However,
channel strategy
these same leaders and participants do not
So, what is the solution to this chicken-egg struggle with generating the appetite to take
problem? Rather than seeking to create the second step — developing and launching
paying customers, enterprises should instead a monetizable product for an audience that
be seeking to develop “qualified prospects” doesn’t yet exist.
with a “reason to believe.” To borrow a phrase
from the film Moneyball, teams shouldn’t be
“To borrow a phrase from the film
interested in buying players, they should be
interested in buying wins. To get wins, they
Moneyball, teams shouldn’t be
interested in buying players, they
65
need to get runs; and to get runs, they need
to get players on base. should be interested in buying
wins. To get wins, they need to get
This same idea can be applied to enterpris-
runs; and to get runs, they need to
es seeking to open up a new channel of
revenue. Companies seeking to earn revenue get players on base. ”
from a new API channel should not create
new products — they should be interested in When your enterprise doesn’t have an estab-
creating new users and deepening relation- lished track record and customer base for
ships with existing users. To create new users, digital products and services, you will need
they need a new channel of developer en- a rational and deliberate strategy for market
gagement, and to do that, they need to make development. If your enterprise goal is to
something easy to engage with. The simplest launch and eventually monetize a public API
path to developer engagement starts with a product set, the three-step path to that des-
free product. tination is: build the channel, fill the channel,
scale the channel.
While this shouldn’t come as a surprise — it
does to many enterprises. Much of the World
Wide Web operates on the back of products
BUILD THE FILL THE SCALE THE
CHANNEL CHANNEL CHANNEL
01 02 03
Figure 23: Channel building & scaling strategy
Phase 01 → Establish a connection with the first set

Build the channel of potential partners through the new
channel of engagement and gather
66
In this phase, your enterprise will take the
feedback to plan, refine, and improve the
foundational steps to establish a new system
customer experience.
of engagement and connect with the people
and organizations that shape and mature
→ Launch an initial product set with low/no
your product set and business architecture.
barrier to entry to targeted partners.
→ Research and define customer segments

Phase 02
that align with your business strategy.
Fill the channel
→ Develop your brand, business, and In this phase, your enterprise will flesh out
operational architectures for serving high- your offering set and bring in a wider range
priority customer audience segments. of customers while hardening your channel
capabilities and operational processes.
→ Instantiate initial identity, authentication,

and credentialing postures for the → Begin broader customer outreach and
first round of potential customers and gather feedback to ensure your offering
partners. and strategy resonate with your target
audiences.
→ Refine brand, business, operational and “consumption” phases while
architectures — specifically in the area of simultaneously making potential and
onboarding complex use cases. actual value transparent to your prospects
and customers.
→ Launch a richer product set that extends
the value being delivered into more “Easy as 1-2-3” only works when
complex offerings that begin to round out
you start with 1
your platform and larger value proposition.
API monetization failures have one critical
Operationalize your ordering and authentica- gap in common — not building a busi-
tion models and integrate your touchpoints ness-context sensitive audience strategy
with an enterprise lead-to-cash value chain; before developing a product strategy. In
formalize your organizational designs to layman’s terms, a product without a channel
reliably support your new service offerings. is neither scalable nor defensible. To be
successful in digital product delivery, enter-
Phase 03 prises must first adopt the digital marketing
Scale the channel practices that made modern enterprise
software shops successful. Free or nominal
In this phase, your new channel teams will dig charges for services that create an appetite
67
in and exploit the leverage you’ve built. for more services (i.e., “freemium”) is the first
step on the path to getting the audience to
→ Expand your efforts in customer outreach desire the services that can be delivered with
while making any needed refinements to more substantial charges attached to them
your onboarding processes. (i.e., “premium”). Once your low-barrier-to-en-
try services have the attention of your target
→ Launch “gap-filling” products that cement audiences (i.e., you’ve built a viable channel),
your platform strategy with a “jobs-to-be- you can start to surface the advanced
done” mindset. high-value offerings (i.e., fill the channel) and
then address and serve larger markets (i.e.,
→ Formalize a merchandising approach to scale the channel). In short, you can’t score
your engagement portal with bundles, a significant amount of runs without first
packages, and add-ons designed to getting on base.
maximize customer “basket size” and

minimize “cart abandonment.”
→ Optimize the customer consumption

journey with a relentless approach to
reducing friction in both the “ordering”
Key takeaways
Developing an executing an
API go-to-market strategy
Bringing digital products to market in advance of having customers or

01
a channel for business engagement is a high-risk endeavor (especially if
your enterprise doesn’t already have a successful digital product offering).
Solving the chicken-egg problems (e.g., brand elasticity, audience

02
development, etc.) of digital product marketing are not very complicat-
ed. Still, many enterprises attempt to skip this step without understanding
the risks (e.g., revenue cannibalization, products with no audiences, insuf-
ficient market understanding, pricing strategies with no grounding data
on value, etc.).
Being deliberate on your go-to-market strategy won’t necessarily

03
impede or slow your path to a successful product launch. When done
well, it allows you to optimize your product launch for customer satisfac-
tion and willing adoption.
06
Conclusion: The journeys
on the path to profit
So far, we have shared examples, “Business is not just doing

insights, and techniques to help get deals; business is having
69
you started on developing an API
great products, doing great
product strategy. This final chapter
is not so much a conclusion to the engineering, and providing
previous chapters as it is an entryway tremendous service to
into the journeys an enterprise must customers. Finally, business
make to successfully design, launch, is a cobweb of human
operate, and scale an API product
relationships.”
portfolio. The purpose of this book
— ROSS PEROT, AMERICAN BUSINE SS
was to give you the right conceptual
PERSON AND PHIL ANTHROPIST
foundation — the right mental model —
to define and execute an API product
strategy. In a follow-up publication, we

will dive much deeper into the topic
of execution, with practitioner level
details on executing the journey your
enterprise must make to navigate from
“API-curious” to “concrete profit.”
Just like your consumers must make a journey to successfully consume and
integrate your API products into their value streams, your enterprise must also
complete a set of journeys to successfully and sustainably produce a suite of
API products.
The success of these journeys isn’t only large organization may have multiple API
a function of the relevance in the market or products at varying levels of maturity, so an
the adoption by your target customers, but enterprise API program needs to be adept at
also in your ability to operate the product set, recognizing which journey they’re on for each
collect and recognize revenue, service your API product and the activities they need to
customers to build loyalty, and project into execute given that context.
the future both the evolution of your product
strategy and the revenue it generates. The purpose of this book was to give you
the right conceptual foundation — the right
The above factors point to a shared vulner- mental model — to define and execute an
ability that occurs in many organizations — a API product strategy. We also shared
lack of balance between “envisioning your examples, insights, and techniques to help
brand and offerings outside-in” and “building get you started on executing that strategy.
70
your offerings inside out.” In a follow-up publication, we will dive much
deeper into the topic of execution, with these
In our work helping organizations around the three API product journeys as the framework.
world systematically unbundling themselves
in targeted ways, we’ve broken down the The business world is changing. The
efforts involved in scaled API product mone- companies that thrive in the digital economy
tization into three journeys: will be the ones that adapt most effectively
to the new conditions digital business
01 The journey from “API-curious” to presents. APIs are more than just a technical
“product in market.” tool for connecting software components.
When used effectively, they can be a method
02 The journey from “product in market” to for digitally unbundling a company’s business
to “API consumption.” capabilities, a channel for reaching customers
at any digital touchpoint, and even reve-

03 The journey from “API consumption” to nue-generating digital products themselves.
“concrete profit.” By applying the lessons in this book, you can
use APIs to get your organization on the path
Separating the journeys in this way allows from program to product to profit.
you to maintain the right execution focus
at the right time for your API products. A
If your organization is considering an API product strategy, launching
an enterprise API program, or looking to nurture your API ecosystem,
MuleSoft is uniquely positioned to help you on your way.
API program workshops — Explore facets of your API product strategy,

such as ecosystem mapping, business model definition, and pricing
strategy with day-long, in-depth workshops.
API strategy hub — Check out self-paced learning resources on develop-

ing an API strategy.
API Community Manager Demo — Learn how to create and

nurture a community of developers and partners to foster adoption
of API products.
MULESOFT, A SALESFORCE COMPANY
MuleSoft, the world’s #1 integration and API platform, makes it easy to connect data from any system
— no matter where it resides — to create connected experiences, faster. Thousands of organizations
across industries rely on MuleSoft to realize speed, agility and innovation at scale. By integrating
systems and unifying data with reusable APIs, businesses can easily compose connected experiences
while maintaining security and control. Through API-led connectivity, customers unlock business
capabilities to build application networks that deliver exponentially increasing value. MuleSoft is the
only unified platform for enterprise iPaaS and full lifecycle API management, and can be deployed to
any cloud or on-premises with a single runtime.
MULE SOF T IS A TR ADEMARK OF MULE SOF T, LLC., A SALE SFORCE COMPANY.

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W HITEPA PER

as the gateway to unbundled business capa-

mindset. Lastly, we present and discuss — STE VE JOBS

many of the most respected and innovative

PRIORITIZATION AUDIENCE VALUE

→ A detailed understanding of the audiences “Like a biological ecosystem, a

connected machines and software applica-

Figure 2: API product ecosystem components

APPLICATION 3RD PARTY

SUPPORT AND UNDERLYING

development teams need to know what APIs

possibly duplicative, API. These examples all

illustrate the value of the ecosystem view.

The ecosystem view is particularly valuable

Figure 4: Details on API benefits

BENEFIT HOW AN ECOSYSTEM MAKES THE BENEFIT REAL

even your partners’ and competitors’ ecosystems will help

E STABLISH FEEDBACK LOOPS Examining the ecosystem from a system dynamics

CUSTOMER DEPOSIT & PLC CREDIT CARD MORTGAGE WEALTH

01 API products — like all products — are vehicles for delivering

As digital products, APIs can provide value with

03 APIs are best managed as products and designed

To build on this, let’s now shift our focus to API consumers.

“outside-in” thinking for API product

design and show how the concept

programming language called “Ruby,” later

Figure 6: Simple user type/segment map

Figure 7: API stakeholder user type/segment map

API BUYER ARCHITECT MAKER

Feels safe in groups Feels safe with a

ARCHITECT - TECHNICAL DECISION MAKER INNOVATOR - BUSINESS & TECHNICAL HYBRID

Inspired by Avoids Inspired by possibility Avoids short-term

Inspired by getting Avoids engaging in Inspired by Avoids teams and

have a strong team

Figure 9: API consumer journey phases

JOURNEY MAPPING IN PRACTICE

01 A persona (“who”) 02 The scenario to be examined (“what”) 03 Chunkable phases

REDUCING MY SERVICES BILL EXPERIENCE MAP

Moment Critical Moment Completion Moment Jump Point

ADJUSTING FINANCES CONSIDERING OPTIONS

““My daughter got a good scholarship

don't like to play with fire like that.”

I know things aren’t

Realizing I’ve got

Level of mastery Conversation

refining with quickly to with POC with

a. anything about us.

readiness Boxes of Guided

Thinking Saying the company’s timeline

© 2020 Harmonic Design, Inc.

02 Bringing traditional business and product disciplines into

and mitigate against disruptive threats.

This analysis looks ludicrous in retrospect Value dynamics

Figure 13: An eCommerce value network

CUSTOMERS ECOMMERCE WHOLESALERS

3RD PARTY SHIPPING

Figure 14: Types of value that can be exchanged

REACH TIME SAVINGS REDUCED RISK

Figure 15: A newspaper business model depicted through value exchange

MONEY REACH REACH

Figure 16: Facebook’s business model

USERS FACEBOOK PRODUCT

MONEY REACH TARGETED